


How Miraculous Should Have Ended

by CodenameJD



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fix-It, Fluff, Humor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2019-06-17
Packaged: 2019-09-06 09:24:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 34
Words: 35,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16829794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CodenameJD/pseuds/CodenameJD
Summary: Inspired by the youtube channel/show How It Should Have Ended, we're going to rewrite the ending of each and every episode of Miraculous.Sometimes, episodes just miss a few tricks. Sometimes, they're just illogical. And sometimes, episode endings are just bad, wrong, or harmful.Some new endings will be fun takes, while some (particularly later on) will seek to correct those moments that had us all seething.





	1. The Bubbler

**Author's Note:**

> I'd hoped to be entirely caught up on seasons 1 and 2 before 3 started... of course, that was when I expected season 3 to start in March and not the weekend just gone.
> 
> If you'd like to give suggestions for how moments, scenes, or episodes should have ended, I'd love to hear them. With your permission & granting credit, I might also like to use some of them. Let me know in the comments :)
> 
> Each scene in a chapter is stand-alone, not following on from each other. They all operate under the assumption that everything that happened before them was as in the episode.

Marinette stood before Adrien, his present held behind her back. All she had to do was make it through one sentence.

“I wanted to, um, gift you a make,” she stammered, as Chloé walked up beside her. “I mean, gift you a give I made! I mean-!”

“Out of the way!” Chloé said, shoving Marinette to the ground. She switched from aggressive to simpering as she wrapped her arms around Adrien. “Happy birthday, Adrien!”

Nino scowled at her, while Adrien pushed her back, frowning.

“Chloé, you need to be more careful. You knocked Marinette over,” he said. Despite what he’d seen from her since starting school, he wanted to believe she was a good person just making mistakes.

He stepped over to wear Marinette was sprawled on the ground, and held out a hand to help her up. “Sorry, Marinette. I think Chloé’s just a little overexcited.”

Marinette blushed, and blinked several times. She suddenly found herself unable to move in order to take his hand. Luckily, he reached out to her and pulled her up.

“What’s this?” he asked, indicating the wrapped present in her hands.

“Oh, well, um, it’s you. I mean, for you! Bappy hirthday!” she said, finally holding it out.

Adrien took the proffered gift, his wide eyes glistening. “Oh, wow! That’s my first present. Thank you, Marinette!”

He beamed, and Marinette melted inside.

* * *

Adrien sighed as he left the house to head back to school. Outside, he was shocked to find his classmates all cheering and wishing him happy birthday.

“Hey hey hey, birthday boy!” a voice called from above. Adrien gasped as he looked up at his clearly akumatised friend. “Guess what, daddy’s gone! While the cat’s away, the mice will play!”

“Nino!?” Adrien cried out. He processed what the Bubbler had said, then added, “Wait, ‘daddy’s gone’? Gone where?”

“Oh, doi! I am such a doofus,” the Bubbler said, laughing and slapping his forehead.

He waved his wand, and a large bubble flew into the side of Adrien’s house. After a few moments, it came crashing through the window with Hawk Moth trapped inside.

“Hawk Moth? That’s weird, it was supposed to go and get your dad,” the Bubbler said, shrugging down at Adrien.

“Bubbler! Free me at once!” Hawkmoth hissed, pounding his fist against the bubble.

“Hey! No grown ups can tell me what to do! Up into the sky!” the Bubbler declared. He thrust his wand upwards, and Hawkmoth sped up into the air. “Now where were we? Right, party!”

* * *

“Nathalie, did my son like his gift?” Gabriel asked his assistant the moment his face appeared on her intercom.

“Well, sir, I haven’t had the chance to give it to him yet. There was an akuma attack and I’ve spent the last few hours in a bubble in space,” Nathalie said pointedly. Gabriel squinted, and dropped the call.

* * *

Marinette gasped, and for a moment her elation at seeing Adrien wearing the scarf she had made for him vanished, as he explained that it was a gift from his father.

 _Oh no! The note must have fallen off at some point_ she thought to herself. The look of joy on Adrien’s face, however, lifted her spirits.

“So anyway, I think yesterday was a sign, I am never gonna blow bubbles again!” Nino said. As he and Adrien ascended the steps into school, he threw his bottle of liquid into a trashcan.

“You gotta tell him _you’re_ the one who knitted the scarf!” Alya said, nudging Marinette in the ribs. Marinette looked up at Adrien.

“But he seems so happy about his dad. I don’t want to spoil it for him,” she said. She smiled warmly, lost in Adrien’s happiness.

At the top of the stairs, Adrien faltered. He was sure Alya had meant to speak a little more quietly so he couldn’t hear.

 _Marinette made me the scarf? But she just wants me to be happy, she doesn’t care about getting credit?_ Adrien thought to himself. His fingers fiddled with the ends of his scarf, and he smiled to himself. _She’s such a good friend!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There'll be a new chapter every day this week to get the ball rolling, so come back tomorrow for Mr Pigeon! These first chapters are already written, though can be edited if anyone has an idea I've not already used :P


	2. Mr Pigeon

Mr Ramier sat on a bench by the river, feeling dejected from Officer Raincomprix’s scalding.

“Mr Pigeon? I’m Hawk Moth,” the villainous mastermind said, softly seducing Mr Ramier to the path of evil. “Neither this police officer, nor any other of the park keepers, should stop you from taking care of your friends. What would Paris be without pigeons? What would pigeons be without you?”

Mr Ramier looked up, smiling brightly. “Well, that’s a very kind offer, Mr Hawk Moth, but it’s quite all right. Not everyone understands, but the beauty of my friends is they can be found everywhere!”

He looked around at the ground, admiring the many pigeons still surrounding him, pecking away at the seeds he had scattered for them.

“Oh. Well… but, don’t you want to take  _ vengeance _ against those who have wronged you?” Hawk Moth hissed.

“Not particularly! But thank you!”

Hawk Moth frowned. “Well… bye then, I suppose…”

“Goodbye, Hawk Moth, better luck next time!”

* * *

Marinette stepped off of the bus, careful to avoid the flocks of birds around her feet. Across the street, a screen was displaying Nadja Chamack giving live news.

“...Yes, I’ve just been told that someone named Mr. Pigeon is making an announcement.”

The camera panned back to reveal Paris’s latest supervillain, and he began his proclamation of evil. Marinette grimaced.

“Really? Hawk Moth has run out of ideas  _ that fast _ !? You know what, I think I’ll pass on this one. Call me when a real villain shows up.”

* * *

Ladybug and Cat Noir backed up against each other as the pigeons began closing in.

“Got any bright ideas, bug?” Cat Noir asked desperately.

“You're the cat, don't you eat these things for breakfast?” Ladybug quipped back.

“Yeah, real cute, but remember how I said I’m allergic? There are hundreds of-” Cat Noir began to say. He was cut off, however, by a choking fit, as he collapsed to the ground.

“No time for a cat nap, kitty!” Ladybug cried emphatically.

“Can’t… breathe!”

* * *

Adrien led Nathalie to Chloé’s podium, in order to show his father Chloé’s design.

“Um, hi Mr. Agreste. I'm Chloé Bourgeois. You know my father, André Bourgeois, the mayor?” Chloé said.

“Yes, Chloé, of course I know your father, and you. Your mother employed me, and you were Adrien’s only childhood friend. There’s no need to be so sycophantic,” Gabriel commented monotonously.

Chloé blanched, while Marinette fought to hold back her laughter as the group approached her design.

Once Marinette had presented her proof that Chloé had in fact copied her design, and Chloé had run off sobbing, Mr Damocles picked up Chloé’s forgery.

“It’s true, Miss Bourgeois even copied the signature!” he declared in astonishment.

“Adrien, that girl is sociopathic. You are not to associate with her any further, understood? And Mr Damocles, I expect you to follow up on this,” Gabriel said.

“But of course, Mr Agreste, we’ll make sure Chloé gets the help she needs,” Mr Damocles said, smiling more brightly than could possibly be appropriate for the situation.

* * *

“Adrien will wear your derby on our next advertising campaign,” Gabriel said, having chosen Marinette as his winner. He then frowned. “No, wait, Adrien will be wearing all white for that fragrance commercial... Well, we’ll just throw together a fashion show or something. Whatever, we’ll sort it out in like two years.”

* * *

Adrien placed Marinette’s winning hat atop his head, but immediately sneezed heavily. At the shocked look on Marinette’s face, he explained, “Sorry, I’m allergic to feathers!”

Marinette blinked. “Oh my gosh, you’re totally Cat Noir,” she said with a begrudging moan. She slapped her palm to her forehead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I find it hilarious how Ramier gets akumatised because he can't feed the pigeons while he's sat on a bench by himself surrounded by pigeons.
> 
> Next up, Stormy Weather!


	3. Stormy Weather

“Man, she crushed you, huh? Better luck next time,” Alec said to Aurore at his side, ensuring that his mic wouldn’t pick up his jab. As Aurore stormed off stage, Alec called after her, “What’s the big deal? You only lost by half a million votes!”

This time his comment was loud enough that Mireille could hear him. “Hey, what’s wrong with you, are you _trying_ to get her akumatised?” she asked, and Alec’s face faltered. “And in fact… that voting gap is huge! I got 82% of the vote? Aurore made it to final too, she must have fans! That can’t be right! We need a recount!”

Mireille went after Aurore so that together they could speak to the producers.

“Well, you’re right girls,” the showrunner informed them in a meeting a while later. “There most certainly was a glaring oversight. The result is still in Mireille’s favour, but it was a lot closer than we thought.”

Aurore sighed, but turned to Mireille and smiled, offering a handshake. “Well, I appreciate you trying to sort this out, Mireille. Congratulations on your win.”

“As for you,” the showrunner said, turning to Alec on the other side of the table. “The audience might not have heard it, but we did. Taunting a teenage girl for coming in second in a huge competition on national television! This is a kids’ network, we can’t have that kind of attitude. You’re fired!”

Alec gasped, and his face quickly took on a scowl.

“This is your fault! You’ll pay for this!” he barked at the two girls.

They did not.

* * *

As Manon’s shrieks of terror rang out, Marinette turned around to see the merry-go-round encased in an iceberg. Her heroic instincts kicked in, and she ran for cover behind a park bench.

“Time to transform!” she declared, opening her bag for Tikki to flutter out. “Tikki, spots on!”

Marinette was enveloped by the magical suit and took on the form of Ladybug. She turned to head into action, and felt her stomach plummet right out of her body into the earth’s core.

Dozens of people all around the park - including Alya, Manon, Adrien, and even Stormy Weather - had all just seen her transform.

“Wow, did you really think we weren’t going to notice you screaming like that if you moved ten feet away?” Stormy Weather jeered. She fell about laughing, and Ladybug took the opportunity to drive her yoyo straight through Stormy Weather’s parasol.

“Hey, no fair!”

* * *

Ladybug and Cat Noir burst into the tv studio in order to trap Stormy Weather. To their dismay, all they found was a prerecorded message. Before they could think about their next move, a lighting fixture had fallen from the ceiling, knocking them both to the ground. In a flash, Stormy Weather breezed past the pair and snatched up their jewellery.

“I’ve done it!” she declared proudly, holding up the Miraculous. “Wow, you were right, Hawk Moth, it was much better to approach them silently than to maniacally laugh and give away my position. That’s why you’re the boss!”

* * *

“I’m ready for the photoshoot!” Marinette called out, running over to join Adrien, the photographer, and the gorilla.

“Well, we were just going to call it a day, what with the attack and all…” the photographer said slowly. “But, I suppose we could- Wait! Who is that… angel!?”

He pointed over at Manon, who seemed pleasantly surprised by the attention.

“Oh, well, she’s only 5, and we’re only babysitting her, so we can’t sign any consent forms for her or anything,” Alya said, shrugging. She slipped Marinette a sly wink.

“Ah, of course, no matter. We go with this young lady!” he declared, waving a lazy hand at Marinette.

Marinette and Adrien worked wonderfully together in the photoshoot, demonstrating easy natural chemistry. Afterwards they all went out for ice cream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alec suuuucks. His total lack of tact or decency gets so many people akumatised. He's so weird; I'm pretty sure the only reason he hasn't been akumatised yet is because he can't display any emotion that isn't peppy.
> 
> Next time, Timebreaker!


	4. Timebreaker

Despite Alix’s disinterest, her father pulled out his gift for her.

“This family heirloom was made by one of our ancestors many, many years ago. It's been passed down from one generation to the next, on their 15th birthday. And today, it's your turn to inherit it,” he explained, as he passed the watch across the table.

“It’s pretty sweet, dad. But I’m  _ 13 _ , not 15,” Alix pointed out, barely stifling a snort.

“You are?” her father said back nervously.

“Yep. And besides, what about Jalil? He’s gonna turn 17 next month,” Alix said, her brow now furrowed in concern.

Her father looked away, and stared out of the window. “I’m a terrible father.”

* * *

“Let's just say that our ancestor was  _ ahead of his time _ ,” Alix’s father said, activating the watch’s hologram.

“Whoa! That’s insane! Dad, we have to sell this, we’ll revolutionise the world and be billionaires!” Alix cheered, rising from her chair.

Her father contemplated what she had said. “Hm. You know, I never thought about that… you’re right, let’s do it!”

The Kubdel holographic technology was lauded as a major scientific breakthrough that pushed the scientific community ahead by decades.

* * *

Ladybug was pleased to hear how well Alix had learnt the very same lesson she herself had learnt that day. “Responsibility isn't something to be taken lightly. I should know,” she said.

“You're totally right. I guess the responsible thing to do with this watch would be to put it away and never mention it again, despite how crazy it is that it even exists!” Alix said, before skating away.

“Alix! Wait!” Alya called, running back to the scene after having fled earlier. Alix stopped to face her. “I just wanted to say I’m really sorry. You trusted me, and I should have taken better care of your watch.”

Alix smiled. “Thanks, Alya. No sweat, it’s all good.”

* * *

“I was just getting used to having two Ladybugs around,” Cat Noir teased, dropping in on Ladybug from behind.

Ladybug was about to quip back, conscious about how long she must have before transforming back, but she looked at Cat Noir’s simple smile and couldn’t just leave it.

“Do you… remember what happened now, before the time travel?” she asked him, a little anxiously. Cat Noir frowned.

“I’m afraid not, my lady. From my point of view it was like there was no time travel. I only know what happened when both Timebreakers were around,” he said.

Ladybug sighed, afraid that he’d say that. She smiled up at him. “Well, you just be careful in future, okay? I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you. You’re important to me, and don’t you forget it.”

She stood up on tiptoes and kissed Cat Noir’s cheek, before swinging away.

* * *

Hawk Moth was brooding in his lair, licking his wounds from his latest defeat.

“Well. There goes my one shot at having a time travel akuma. I definitely couldn’t do that again. Good thing I used it so effectively, so a random girl could get a watch back, instead of, say, saving my wife before it was too late. That would have been a terrible plan compared to trying to steal some jewellery ineffectively. I am such a brilliant villain!” he said, laughing maniacally as his viewing window closed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm basing Alix's age on Marinette turning 14 in season 2. Chameleon told us that season 2 was a new school year. My guess is the writers probably wanted to retcon ages when they found out how long the show would run. And I know in the French dub he says the watch goes to the youngest child... but that's just a bizarre tradition. He's not too old to have another kid, then what?
> 
> And this becomes the first of MANY chapters that will fix problems with the use of the word sorry. The writers seriously need to learn that word ¬_¬
> 
> Stay tuned for Copycat tomorrow!


	5. Copycat

As Alya pointed out how Adrien must simply be busy, Marinette realised she knew exactly where he was. She pulled down her copy of Adrien’s timetable and explained how that he was in fencing practise.

Alya blinked. “You have a giant wall hanging of Adrien’s timetable? Girl, how did you get this if you can’t even talk to Adrien? Did you just follow him around constantly until you had it all filled in?”

In response, Marinette simply pulled a cutesy face, winking and sticking out her tongue.

“Okay, well…” Alya said, getting up and slowly walking over to the trapdoor, not breaking eye contact as she went. “While you go to get Adrien’s phone, I’ll just… I’ll go and distract him for you, yeah!”

Alya escaped down the stairs as quickly as she could.

* * *

Marinette sneaked past the fencing class and into the locker room.

“Which one’s his!?” she cried, momentarily panicked.

“Marinette, you’re trying to tell me you have a wall hanging of his schedule for an entire year but you don’t know which locker you see him open every day?” Tikki asked.

Marinette made her cutesy winking-and-tongue-sticking-out face, making her way over to Adrien’s locker. Tikki frowned.

“It’s locked!” Marinette said despondently, pulling at the locker door.

Tikki zipped through the door and opened it from the inside. “Tada!”

“Thanks Tikki! You know, I’m surprised at how comfortable you are with breaking into Adrien’s locker,” Marinette said, rooting around for his phone.

“What can I say, I’m a rebel,” Tikki said. She pulled on a pair of tiny shades from behind her back. “While we’re at it, let’s just steal his phone and fix it at home so we don’t get caught!”

“Good thinking, Tikki!” Marinette said, running back through the door.

* * *

Cat Noir had been grateful to Théo for his work on the statue. He had gotten used to people thinking he was just Ladybug’s sidekick, so it felt nice for someone to give them equal recognition - even if Théo had made him too short. As Théo went on about how much he wanted to get to know Ladybug, however, it became clear to Cat Noir that Théo was just another obsessive Ladybug fan.

“Hey, don't mean to burst your bubble, but you know, Ladybug and me, we're a thing, you know?” he said, leaning on Théo’s shoulder.

“Really?” Théo asked flatly. It was clear he didn’t think much of Cat Noir.

“Yeah, we’re like this,” Cat Noir said, crossing his fingers. He considered the adult man stood beside him for a moment. “Plus, you realise she and I are both  _ teenagers _ , right?”

Théo’s eyes went wide. “Wait. Seriously?”

“Yep.”

“Whoa! I… wow. Uh, thanks, Cat Noir. That… that was… way too close…” Théo said. His face was crimson as he walked away, arms locked in place at his side.

Cat Noir glared after him. “Creep.”

* * *

Hawk Moth smiled as he sensed a strong new target for an akuma. Moments later, however, that turned to a frown.

“Wait a minute. This guy is upset because he’s in love with Ladybug? She’s just a child! I mean, I know I try to murder her every week, but _that’s_ evil!”

He thought for a moment, and stroked his chin. “New plan. Send an akuma to deal with this creep, because, I mean, seriously!”

* * *

As Cat Noir explored Théo’s art studio, he called Ladybug to let her know he was on the case.

“Well? Tell me where you are,” she said with urgency.

“Théo Barbot’s work studio. I’ll take cover and wait for you. We work best as a team, after all,” Cat Noir said fondly.

Ladybug smiled at him. “I’ll be there in a flash! Thanks for not going all macho on me and trying to take him down on your own.”

Cat Noir retreated to the roof to meet with Ladybug to take Copycat down with ease.

* * *

“I love you, Ladybug! I'm way better than this mangy alley cat!” Copycat declared, as Ladybug let him know she knew the truth.

“Sorry, but liars are losers. Cat Noir may annoy me to pieces, but he's never lied to me,” Ladybug said confidently.

“He told me that the two of you are a thing,” Copycat explained.

Ladybug looked to Cat Noir. He grinned nervously. Ladybug scowled.

“Are you serious right now? Boys are the worst, I’m out of here, you two idiots can sort this out yourselves,” Ladybug said, yoyoing back out of the building.

* * *

“If I can’t have you, then nobody will!” Copycat cried out, readying his Cataclysm.

Ladybug and Cat Noir grimaced.

“Excuse me?” Ladybug said in horror.

“Seriously, dude, you are an  _ adult _ and she is  _ 13 _ ,” Cat Noir said, shaking his head.

“I tried to give you a chance, but this is just not okay, seriously,” Hawk Moth sighed, recalling his akuma.

As Copycat changed back into Théo, he looked around sheepishly. Ladybug and Cat Noir scowled at him. They knocked him out and handed him over to the authorities.

* * *

Cat Noir’s ring beeped its one minute warning, and he knew he had to leave.

“My lady, before I go, I have a confession to make,” he sighed, looking away. “It’s my fault Théo was akumatised. I lied to him and said we were a couple. I just felt jealous and didn’t think about it. I’m sorry.”

Ladybug gave him a soft frown, but soon the corners of her mouth turned up. “Well, I’m not thrilled to hear that, but you did the right thing by telling the truth. I hope you’ll remember this in future,” she said, holding out her fist. Cat Noir pounded it, then dashed away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Boy was this one a wild ride, and pretty much the whole thing boils down to "do the writers seriously not think this is creepy and inappropriate AT BEST?"
> 
> First, we have Marinette's stalkerish copy of Adrien's timetable. Next, she reveals her kleptomaniac side by stealing Adrien's phone - with Tikki's help and support! And finally, we have the utter creep that is Théo Barbot. I know people are confused about the heroes' exact ages, but the fact remains he is an adult who is going to way because he fancied a teenage girl and she didn't know he existed.
> 
> Sorry strikes again! You're gonna introduce Marinette's hatred for lying in an episode in which the akuma is caused by Cat Noir LYING, and then not have him apologise? Come on, guys.
> 
> I'll try to keep updates to be as regular as I can going forward until we catch up, though things will start to slow down, especially with Christmas around the corner. Next time will be Lady Wifi, see you then!


	6. Lady Wifi

“Hey! I think I've just sniffed out who the real Ladybug is!” Alya said. She had dragged Nino off to confide her theory in him, and the news bulletin about the latest akuma attack only made her more confident in her suspicions. She leaned in close to him, and whispered, “Chloé!”

Nino stared at Alya, then laughed. “Chloé? Seriously? There’s no way, everyone saw Ladybug save Chloé when Stoneheart threw her back when she first showed up, it was on the news! You are cray-cray, lady!”

“Oh, right. I can’t believe I forgot about that,” Alya sighed, shaking her head.

“And didn’t you just get an alert about Ladybug stopping an akuma? Chloé was in class with us, she couldn’t have done that,” Nino said, still chuckling. He suddenly snapped his fingers and pointed at Alya. “Marinette was out for pretty much that whole class though. Maybe it’s her!”

Alya laughed. “Pfft, yeah right, Marinette’s a total scaredy-cat, she runs away to hide every time there’s an akuma atta- oh no  _ way _ , Marinette is totally Ladybug!” Alya cried out, shaking with nerves and excitement. “Well, that explains the hair thing…”

“Totally! And why she’s so flaky,” Nino said. He shrugged, and went on, “You know, I’d have guessed Adrien was Cat Noir, since he and Marinette are so alike. But he was just in class with us too, so he couldn’t have been out there helping Ladybug.”

“True. So no leads on Cat Noir, but we have to find out if Marinette is Ladybug! Let’s go!”

* * *

“Dang, no signal,” Marinette sighed. She was trying to call Alya to hear her theory about Ladybug.

She climbed out through her skylight to try for better signal outside, but still had no luck. After a moment, she saw a repair technician at work, and realised why.

“Sorry, miss. Cell tower maintenance. The whole neighborhood's down. No signal for the next hour!” he said.

“Oh, no worries. I can just connect to the wifi and call Alya that way,” Marinette said to Tikki, heading back down into her room.

A minute later, Alya was explaining her theory to Marinette.

“Chloé!?” Marinette wailed. “No way! Okay, let’s just… talk about this rationally. Whatever you do, don’t do anything crazy and get in trouble…”

* * *

“I'm not sure that my  _ father _ would share your point of view,” Chloé said to Mr Damocles, her finger hovering threateningly over the call button.

“Uh, well, now, Chloé, let's not bother your father, I mean, the honorable Mayor with a minor locker situation…” Damocles said, stuttering nervously.

Chloé hit call.

“Eh... what I mean is, you're suspended for a week, Alya,” he said, accepting his defeat.

“What?! That is so unfair! I am so gonna protest this on the school blog! In fact, I’ll go one step further, I’ll contact the board of education about corruption in the system!”

Damocles blinked at her. Chloé’s father could cost him his job. The board of education could stop him from working in schools entirely.

“So, as I said, one hour of detention for you, Alya…” he said.

Chloé growled and stormed out, her empty threats having failed her.

* * *

“Well, well... what am I gonna do with both of you?” Lady Wifi said, pondering over the captured Ladybug.

“Get her to use her Lucky Charm!” Hawkmoth told her. “It'll force her to switch back, and her identity will be revealed, and her Miraculous will be mine… oh, wait, her Miraculous. Never mind, just take off her earrings and she’ll transform back.”

“Sweet,” Lady Wifi said. She pulled off the Miraculous earrings, and Ladybug transformed back into Marinette.

Lady Wifi gasped, but then cackled in triumph. “Well now, Paris, we know the truth. Ladybug is none other than Marinette Dupain-Cheng… or should I say… she  _ was _ !”

Lady Wifi busted open the freezer door, exposing Adrien.

“Adrien! How could you…” Hawk Moth sighed, despondent. “No matter. Lady Wifi, bring me the Miraculous!”

Lady Wifi paused Adrien and Plagg, found the dropped ring, and delivered the Miraculous to Hawk Moth.

* * *

Ladybug and Cat Noir burst into the foyer of the Grand Paris, scanning for anywhere to hide and transform. Ladybug spotted a janitor’s cupboard, and dashed for it.

“Stay! I won't tell anyone who you are. Cat's honor,” Cat Noir said.

“Nobody must know who we really are. Not even us,” Ladybug said, dashing inside.

Cat Noir sighed, and as he saw the glow of her transformation, he considered opening the door. He held himself back, and turned to silently walk away.

The door creaked open, and Cat Noir, operating on instinct and without thinking, turned around. Marinette was peeking out, and her face became a picture of panic as their eyes met.

Cat Noir beamed.

* * *

“Wanna see my new smartphone? It puts my old phone to shame! Just look at these pics!” Alya said, as she climbed up to meet Marinette. She pulled out her phone and scrolled through her photo gallery.

“Huh? What's with all these photos of Adrien?” Marinette asked.

“Well... with a mask and a costume, don't you think he looks a little bit like Cat Noir?” Alya shot back, showing Marinette a picture onto which she’d doodled Cat Noir’s costume.

“Are you out of-” Marinette began, but then she properly looked at the picture. “Oh my gosh, you’re totally right! But there’s no way? Is there!?”

“Only one way to find out. Wanna go break into his locker?”

“Always!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lady Wifi really suffered from what future episodes established. Hawk Moth should have known Lady Wifi could just take the earrings off, and all of Paris knew that Chloé Bourgeois was one of few people who couldn't possibly be Ladybug. But who needs consistency when you've got drama? :P
> 
> Next up will be Pharaoh!


	7. Pharaoh

“Don't blink now, 'cause we are live from Paris. Yo peeps, Alya here, bringing you the one and only Ladyblog,” Alya said cheerfully into her phone’s camera. She looked around the street, a tad nervously. “And, uh, well… man, I was really hoping Ladybug might show up there…”

* * *

“Freak out! What you got here is no ordinary book, it's a tenth grade history book,” Alya said, showing her camera the book Ladybug had just dropped as she swung past. “And I should know, 'cause I've got this very same book. Could our very own Ladybug be a high school student? Whoa!”

As the video ended, Tikki was pleasantly surprised by how calm Marinette seemed in the face of the crisis.

“What's done is done; we can't change what happened. We can only move forward. Alya must not find out who you are. You know how persistent she can be with her blog totally dedicated to Ladybug,” Tikki said. Marinette smiled at her.

“Oh, I’m not worried.”

“You’re not?”

“Nope! Alya thinks that’s a tenth grade history book, but we’re not even in tenth grade yet! There’s no way she’d suspect me after that,” Marinette said.

She leaned back in her chair, putting her feet up and her hands behind her head. Then she fell backwards.

* * *

As Marinette and Alya made their way into the Egyptian exhibit, Jalil pushed past them. He tripped, scattering everything in his arms, including a medallion. He knelt down to pick everything up.

“Oh no! It’s broken!” he said, holding up the shattered jewel. He sighed. “Well, I guess that’s what I get for being impatient. Oh well.”

“Hey, we’re fine by the way!” Alya shouted as Jalil left despondently. When he didn’t react, she muttered, “Weirdo.”

* * *

Jalil was lecturing his father, the director of the Egyptian exhibit, on the meaning of the hieroglyphics on display.

“Then you also know that Tutankhamun wanted to bring his princess back to life, by offering the sun god a new wife. This seemed to illustrate the ritual he devised. Nobody has ever fully deciphered the hieroglyphics, but I have! It's a magic chant that needs to be recited in order to complete the ritual! I'm sure of it!”

“Jalil. That ritual involves human sacrifice. You are telling me you want to kill someone and cross your fingers to see if another dead person comes back. Do you see the flaw in your logic here,” Mr Kubdel said.

Jalil’s face faltered. “Right. Okay. You’re right. Sorry, dad.”

Mr Kubdel smiled. “Come on, I’ve got a watch for you that I may have accidentally given to your sister…”

* * *

“Pharaoh, I am Hawk Moth,” the supervillain explained to his latest victim. “I have endowed you with the magical power of the ancient gods. You must do me a favour in return for this gift.”

“My precious Nefertiti will come back to life!” Jalil declared, rising up as the akuma took over him.

“Wait a moment… one of those powers is resurrecting the dead?!” Hawk Moth cried out. He placed a thoughtful finger on his chin. “Change of plans, you’re going to come straight here, this may be easier than I thought.”

* * *

“That Alya is one brave chick!” Cat Noir said, admiring her quick thinking in her trail of breadcrumbs.

“If by brave, you mean bossy, feisty, and bold? Yup, that's her!” Ladybug said fondly of her friend.

“My lady, bold  _ literally _ means brave… so yes, yes that is what I mean,” Cat Noir said. Ladybug pouted.

“Whatever. How do you know her name, anyway?” she asked shrewdly.

“I’m not even going to pretend like I don’t constantly read her blog to keep up on news about you. That’s how I found out about this attack so quickly. Look, I’m still watching now!” he said. He held up his staff to show Ladybug the small screen displayed Alya’s live feed.

“Whatever, get us out of here, Cat Noir!” Ladybug said, stepping back to give him room for his Cataclysm.

* * *

Ladybug swung away, satisfied that Alya now believed her to be thousands of years old.

“Don’t you want to know how old  _ I _ am?” Cat Noir asked.

Alya held up her camera to him, and rambled for a moment, until she heard a telltale beeping.

“Looks like I’ll be able to tell for myself!” she said as his transformation dropped. She gasped. “Adrien!? Huge scoop, Ladyblog!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weird episode. If the Pharaoh was actually given the power to do what he was trying to do, then why in the world does Hawk Moth not have the power to just bring Emilie back? The show keeps telling us the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous(es) are the strongest, but time after time what they show us on screen says otherwise.
> 
> Next time will be Evillustrator!


	8. Evillustrator

Miss Mendeleiev was putting students into groups to work on their new project. Marinette and Chloé were both as unhappy as each other to be put together.

“Uh, Miss, can't you add her to another group? Sabrina and I work much better on our own,” Chloé said, sneering at Marinette.

“This is a group presentation, not pairs! Deal with it,” Mendeleiev said, with none of the tact and understanding that teachers should show their students.

“Um, but there’s only 14 of us in the class, Miss…” Myléne pointed out. “At the moment, Alix and I are only a group of two… Marinette could work with us.”

“Fine! Whatever! Just get it done!” Mendeleiev groaned. She was the first one through the door when the bell rang.

Marinette turned to Myléne and Alix, put her hands together, and squeaked out, “Thank you!”

* * *

After Evillustrator attacked the library, Ladybug and Cat Noir went to talk to Chloé, having noticed he had targeted her.

“Are you okay?” Ladybug asked Chloé, pulling her back to her feet.

“No! Just look at my hair!” Chloé sobbed.

“Where are the other girls you were with?” Cat Noir asked, looking around.

“I’m here!” Sabrina called, hobbling over. She also seemed somewhat dishevelled.

“Great. And the other girl?” Cat Noir said, looking around again.

“So anyway, Chloé, we should-” Ladybug said, trying to swiftly change the subject. Cat Noir scrutinised her.

“Hey, how exactly did you know about this attack so quickly,  _ my Lady _ ? Seems like you must have already been here!”

Ladybug spluttered for a moment, but quickly recovered to counter him with, “Oh yeah? W-well I could say the same thing about you!”

For a moment, the two heroes stared each other down. Then, at the same time, their eyes widened and they gasped.

* * *

Marinette jumped when she realised Sabrina was standing right outside her door. “Oh! Sabrina! You scared me.”

“Sorry... I was just waiting for you. Did you get my messages?” Sabrina asked.

“Yes! Yes I did! And I was totally gonna call you… but, you know, there was an akuma attack, remember?”

“Right! I knew you would! Eventually. And so? I did your geography homework!” Sabrina said, pushing a blue folder towards Marinette.

“Whoa! You didn't have to do that.”

“Well, since you're my new best friend, it's the least I can do.”

“Thanks, but I just can't.”

“Really?”

“Really, Sabrina!” Marinette said, as she pushed the folder back for the final time. “Seriously, Sabrina, friends don’t just do each other’s homework. Maybe they help each other out if they’re behind, but the effort needs to go both ways!”

“Wow… thank you, Marinette! So, you wanna work on the physics project tonight?”

“Ugh, I'm so sorry Sabrina, but that akumatised person just showed up,” Marinette said, realising that the truth was the best explanation. “Turns out it was Nathaniel, and if I don’t go with him tonight he might do something terrible! But Ladybug and Cat Noir should have that sorted out by tomorrow, so we could meet up at lunchtime and start then?”

Sabrina squinted at Marinette shrewdly. “Oh really? You know,  _ Chloé _ used to give me a lot of excuses just like that!”

“No, I swear - look, Cat Noir’s even here now!” Marinette said, as the hero landed behind Sabrina. Sabrina jumped.

“Oh! Wow! Uh… sorry I doubted you, Marinette. Tomorrow sounds perfect! I’ll try to get some reading done tonight! See you!” Sabrina said, turning to leave.

* * *

“Cat Noir, now!” Marinette cried. She snatched Evillustrator’s stylus from him and leapt to her feet. Cat Noir extended his baton, blocking Evillustrator from getting up.

“Marinette! You’re working with him! I’m so stupid…” Evillustrator said, beginning to ramble about how Marinette was like Chloé.

Marinette snapped his stylus, and the akuma fluttered out.

“Rule 1 of being a villain; never monologue,” Marinette said, as Evillustrator changed back into Nathaniel.

“That’s great and all, but what do we do about that!” Cat Noir said, pointing at the evil black butterfly.

“Oh, right,” Marinette squeaked.

“Well… I’ll just take this guy safely out of the way, and _hopefully Ladybug will show up to deal with this_!” Cat Noir yelled into the night. He jumped down to Nathaniel, winked at Marinette, then carried Nathaniel away.

Marinette was momentarily stunned, until Tikki popped out of her bag.

* * *

“In the comics, this is what's known as the final showdown. The thing is, if you knew her, you wouldn't be breaking a sweat to save her skin! She's the real baddie!” Evillustrator said, facing down Ladybug and Cat Noir.

“I mean… your name literally starts with the word evil…” Cat Noir said, slowly.

“...But you’ve got a good point. Bye, Chloé!” Ladybug finished. She and Cat Noir left Chloé’s room, swinging and vaulting into the night.

“Wait! You’re not just going to leave me here!” Chloé cried out.

Evillustrator bore down on her. Chloé Bourgeois was never seen nor heard from again.

* * *

“No! The Miraculous was practically mine!” Hawkmoth cried out in despair. “And they will be. Once I have them all in my grasp, I shall rule the world! Even though that’s not remotely what I actually want them for!

"My wife? Bah, who cares! Why resurrect her when I can just rule the world!”

* * *

Marinette shook her head as Sabrina ran back to Chloé, having failed to learn anything, once again allowing everything to return to the status quo. She closed her locker, and suddenly heard banging coming from inside another.

“Hey! That’s my locker!” Sabrina said, running back over and opening it. Adrien tumbled out in a heap on the ground.

“Ow. Thanks, I was stuck in there,” he said, gingerly picking himself back up.

“How did you get in my locker!?” Sabrina asked indignantly.

“And why?” Marinette added, looking at Adrien as though she’d never seen him before.

“Oh! Well, uh…” Adrien dusted himself off, then leant against the locker, trying to regain his smooth composure. “I heard about your adventures with Cat Noir yesterday. Were you scared?”

Marinette frowned. “How did you hear about that? The only ones who know that happened are Ladybug, Cat Noir, and Nathaniel - and he was akumatised so he doesn’t remember anything!”

“Uh… well, see, the thing about that is…” Adrien said. His eyes darted around wildly. Faced with no other alternative, he jammed himself back in Sabrina’s locker and closed it again.

As Sabrina tried her hardest to pull it open, Plagg fluttered out.

“I swear, it’s like the two of you are  _ trying _ to get caught at this point!” he said, while Marinette merely shook her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you imagine if these two were rational thinkers?
> 
> I always thought Hawk Moth's random early rants about ruling the world were a translation error, but it turns out he says the same in French. The writers reeeaaally didn't know what was going on early on, huh.
> 
> And I know Adrien regularly fits into lockers. Let's just assume Sabrina's is a little more full than most.
> 
> Next time: Rogercop!


	9. Rogercop

Mayor Bourgeois did not like being disobeyed. “All right,” he said to Roger, “then you're no longer a police officer!”

“Mayor, you can't be serious!” Roger cried out in dismay. “Over a missing bracelet?”

“This is my daughter's bracelet we're talking about! You're incompetent and you're fired! Get out!” Bourgeois boomed, shocking the class of children behind him.

“Chloé Do something! Please don’t let your dad fire my dad!” Sabrina begged of her best friend.

Chloé rolled her eyes. “Ugh, fine, whatever. Daddy, let him keep his job.”

“Of course, sweetums! Roger, you’re unfired!” Bourgeois called out to Roger, before he was out of earshot.

Roger walked back in, and let out a deep breath.

* * *

Ladybug and Cat Noir arrived outside city hall just in time for the mayor’s announcement to be broadcast across the city.

“Paris has a new superpower. His name is Rogercop. I hereby relinquish all authority to Rogercop. All citizens are ordered to answer to him,” Bourgeois sighed. The camera panned up to Rogercop.

“Ladybug and Cat Noir are now outlaws. They must be hunted out and taken into custody immediately,” Rogercop declared.

Ladybug and Cat Noir’s eyes met as the police officers surrounding them turned to them. The team’s leader raised her visor.

“Well, I mean, obviously we’re not just going to do what this villain says just because he’s seized power,” she said, shrugging. “We are at your disposal Ladybug, Cat Noir! How can we help you stop Roger?”

The heroes beamed at each other and their new allies.

* * *

With Cat Noir distracting the police outside, Ladybug was able to sneak into the mayor’s office. Chloé caught sight of her, and Ladybug mimed to her to stay quiet. Chloé nodded, and for once managed to keep her mouth shut.

Ladybug snuck up behind Rogercop, reached around, and snatched his whistle away. In a flash, she snapped it and purified the akuma, returning Roger to normal.

* * *

  
  
“Okay, I have an idea but I still need something like... a ring.

Ladybug and Cat Noir hid from Rogercop behind the mayor’s desk, while Ladybug looked around for inspiration.   
  
“Where am I gonna get a ring from?” she asked. A lightbulb popped on above Cat Noir’s head, and he felt for his pocket. Beneath his costume, he felt Chloé’s bracelet.

“Uh… my Lady, could you close your eyes for a moment?” he asked.

“Cat Noir, now is not the time for-”

“Trust me,” he said earnestly. Ladybug sighed, but complied.

Cat Noir coughed, disguising his voice as he said, “Claws in!” He changed back into Adrien and was able to pull the bracelet out of his pocket, and throw it away. He coughed again, calling “Plagg, claws out!”

“Oh, hey, Ladybug, over there,” he said, all too nonchalantly, pointing over to the bracelet.

Ladybug stared at it for a moment, then turned and shook her head at Cat Noir.

“I don’t even wanna know,” she said, as she made a grab for it.

* * *

“Well, Roger, I do apologise for being so accusatory, and firing you for no good reason,” Mayor Bourgeois said, as Roger returned Chloé’s bracelet.

“I think Officer Roger has proven his excellence to you, Mr. Mayor. You'd be wrong not to keep him on,” Ladybug said pointedly.

“Of course, Ladybug! You're absolutely right. And actually, it's Lieutenant Roger now,” the Mayor said proudly.

“Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm proud to be on the force, and I vow to uphold my firm belief that every citizen is innocent until proven guilty… but I will still be suing you for gross abuse of power,” Roger said, humming to himself as he walked out of the office.

André sputtered and turned to Ladybug for support. Ladybug, however, just shrugged at him.

Over the following months, news of the trial caused a monumental scandal in the city. Audrey returned to Paris, only to serve her husband with divorce papers and return to New York with Chloé, and André was swiftly forced to step down as mayor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can't just... do that, Gabriel.
> 
> One moment that was asked about from this episode was Adrien apparently carrying around pepper with him. Yes, that's utterly absurd, but changing that moment wouldn't really change anything else about the plot. I've already had to make some tough calls about that, but I'm going to stick tightly to the focus of how each moment should have ended, so to show up here it was to have some overall impact on how things go down.
> 
> Next time, we're going to drop the Christmas Special into season 1 here! Because it's Christmas! :D


	10. Christmas Special

Gabriel was stood, as usual, staring at the tapestry of his wife, when Nathalie knocked. He called her in, just to get whatever she had to say over with.

“I can imagine how difficult it must be for you, sir. But it's also Adrien's first Christmas without his mother. I really think, sir…” Nathalie said.

“I know, you're right. I'll go see him. I just need a little more time,” Gabriel said, cutting her off.

Nathalie scowled. “No,  _ sir _ , you don’t. You’ve been in here for months, and your teenage son is mourning his mother! He needs you  _ now _ !” she said, marching up to Gabriel and dragging him out to knock on Adrien’s door.

Adrien had been about to leave as Cat Noir when the knock came. His face lit up at the sight of his father, even if he did appear rather harassed.

“M-Merry Christmas, Adrien,” Gabriel said.

Adrien wrapped his arms around his father, and was satisfied with a lukewarm family Christmas.

* * *

_ "It's Christmas in Paris, all is cheery and bright! But I am all alone tonight _ ,” Cat Noir sang as he raced across the rooftops of Paris. He perched across the street from Marinette’s house, and looked in at her family through the window. “ _ Families are together, with their gifts by their side. Only Cat Noir's alone tonight. _ ”

Marinette caught his eye, and rushed over to the window.

“Cat Noir! Is everything all right?” she asked.

Cat Noir faltered, almost falling from position. He was completely distracted from his song. “Oh, well, uh, you know… everything’s fine. I’m just… alone.”

“Well… you don’t have to be,” Marinette said, with a warm smile. Cat Noir’s heart melted, and he pounced down through her window, joining the Dupain-Cheng’s happy, loving Christmas.

* * *

“ _ There's no warmth for me, no tenderness for me. I'm alone like a cat in the night! I'm a sad lonely kitty! Won't anybody take pity? Cat Noir is alone tonight! Cat Noir is alone tonight! _ ” the hero sang. He was sad.

Across the city, the window of Hawk Moth’s lair opened.

“So, Cat Noir is feeling lonely, is he? Well, we can’t have that now, can we,” Hawk Moth said, calling a butterfly into his hands. “Fly away, little akuma, and evilise this hero!”

The butterfly made it to Cat Noir as he was tearing towards a public Christmas tree, ready to destroy it with his Cataclysm. The akuma flew into his ring.

“Cat Blanc. I am Hawk Moth - but of course, you know that already. You’ve been abandoned by your friends and, worse, your family, on this cold, lonely winter’s night. Let me be there for you in their place. I want to help you. Just bring me the Miraculous, and you’ll have everything you want!”

Cat Noir fell to his knees, and screwed his eyes shut tight to hold back his tears. He drew a shuddering breath, then gasped out, “Do it.”

* * *

Ladybug swung down onto the scene where the remains of the postbox hit by Cat Noir’s Cataclysm lay in wait.

_ “There is only one thing this kind of damage can bring, Cat Noir's Cataclysm, am I right? _ __   
_ And look this gift wrap too, it's an important clue, it's from my present to Adrien tonight. _ __   
_ Adrien disappears, and Cat Noir steps in, wait, hold on, what does that mean? _ _   
_ __ My only explanation, my speculation, is that Cat Noir is really secretly Adrien!

_ “Oh my gosh that’s insane, although in the same vein, how could I not see it before? _ __   
_ It’s really pretty clear, he was always right here, how could I not see it before? _ __   
_ They have the same freaking hair, and the same pretty stare, how could I not see it before? _ _   
_ __ So now what do I do, should I even tell you, now that I’ve seen it before you…

“This is crazy! Adrien is Cat Noir! I have to be the one to find him and… hopefully I’ll know what to do then,” Ladybug sighed, leaping back into action.

* * *

Adrien rang his doorbell, and the security camera zoomed out to scan him and Santa.

“Adrien is that you?” Gabriel asked, but, to Santa he asked, “Who are you?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m Santa Claus!”

“Really now? That would make me the Easter Bunny. You're here for money, I suppose? I'll get my bodyguard to deal with you!”

“What? Father, he’s just brought me home out of the goodness of his heart, why would you need to ‘deal with him’? Besides, giving someone a reward for doing a good deed isn’t unreasonable!”

“Except your father's got the right idea, Adrien!” Ladybug said, dropping down onto the street. “He's a supervillain under Hawk Moth's control!”

Adrien’s eyes went wide. “What are you talking about, Ladybug? Look at him, he’s a perfectly normal person. I helped him out and he’s doing the same for me by bringing me home. He’s not done anything wrong.”

Ladybug zipped her yoyo back into her hand. “Wait, seriously? But… what about Cat Noir?”

“Oh! Yeah, I, uh, saw him, he was just having a bad night…” Adrien said, looking away from Ladybug.

“Well… sorry about that mix up,” Ladybug said, grinning too broadly.

“Oh, well… water under the bridge,” Santa said, with a slightly nervous chuckle.

“You all must be very cold outside. Come on in,” Gabriel said, not entirely happily buzzing the gates open. Adrien, Santa, and Ladybug all went inside.

* * *

Santa Claws reached out for his present, as Cat Noir finished his song of surrender. The wind blew harshly, knocking down the standee of Ladybug. Fortunately, Santa Claws was too distracted to notice. Unfortunately however, he tore into the paper and found what was inside.

“Uh oh! Didn’t really think about the 5 minute timer after using my lucky charm!” Marinette squealed.

Santa Claws cackled, pulled off her earrings, and threw her down to earth.

* * *

Marinette happily mingled with her friends in the Agreste dining room after everyone had eaten. It was the early hours of the morning, but everyone was wide awake - adrenaline had carried them so far, with relief and Christmas spirit carrying them through the rest of the night.

She was talking to Rose and Juleka in the doorway between the dining room and the entrance chamber when the sun appeared on the horizon and the room was bathed in light. Suddenly, Rose gasped and giggled, and Juleka pointed behind Marinette. They both turned away from Marinette.

Bewildered, Marinette also turned, and leapt into the air at the sight of Adrien behind her. He beamed at her and laughed.

“So Nino tells me it was your idea to get everyone to come over?” he asked.

Marinette nodded rapidly, hoping desperately that words would come to her quickly so she could stop. “Um! Yeah, well, you know… I uh…”

She took a deep breath and looked up at Adrien. She met his eyes and saw nothing but sincere joy. “Nobody should be alone on Christmas.”

Adrien wrapped his arms around her, and squeezed. “Thank you. And thank you for my present! I hope you understand me giving it to Santa, it seemed like his needs were greater than mine.”

“Of course not, it was so sweet of you to put someone else before yourself!” she said.

For a moment, the pair just smiled at each other. Then Marinette saw Nino lifting Alya into the air behind Adrien, and in Alya’s hand she saw her untimely demise.

At the look of panic on Marinette’s face, Adrien looked up. He didn’t realise Alya was holding it, but he did see the mistletoe she was holding up.

Adrien looked down at Marinette, smiled, and moved to kiss her on the cheek. Marinette thought he was going for her lips, and so jerked her head to the side at the last moment, worried she would mess up the moment.

Naturally, they kissed.

It was only a moment before Adrien pulled away, leaving Marinette frozen in place. Both were too distracted by their own crimson cheeks’ to notice each other’s.

“M-merry Christmas, Marinette,” Adrien said.

He turned to walk away, unable to stop grinning giddily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has it all! Romance! Drama! Suspense! Comedy! Music! Definitely my favourite chapter so far.
> 
> Just think of the special story we could have had if Cat Noir had been akumatised, instead of some random Santa.
> 
> And that last scene is just... self-indulgent wishful thinking. Because how do you do a Christmas special and not have any cute romantic Christmassy moments?
> 
> Two reasons I've put the Christmas special here. One; it's Christmas time! Two; next up is Dark Cupid, and while I've long since given up hopes of a cohesive timeline for this show, I think Christmas comes before Valentines!


	11. Dark Cupid

“Hi Adrien, sign here please,” Chloé said, accosting Adrien on his way out of class.

“Oh, come on, you know I hate signing autographs, Chloé,” he sighed.

“Oh, that's not what this is. This is a petition against cruelty to hamsters. Have you seen some of the ugly sweaters they're forced to wear? It's appalling!”

“Well, I definitely support ending cruelty to hamsters… can I read what it says?” Adrien asked, holding his hands out to Sabrina so that she could hand him the poster in her arms.

“Uhh… hey, look, Marinette’s rooting around in the trash!” Chloé said, pointing back into the classroom.

Adrien looked behind him, and saw that Marinette was indeed pulling his crumpled paper out of the bin. Marinette froze up. Chloé and Sabrina took the opportunity to run away.

“Uh, hey, Marinette, what are you doing?” Adrien asked.

Marinette gulped. “Oh, well, I... it just looked like you were working so hard on this in class, and you’re never normally distracted, I was curious!”

“You know you could have just asked me,” Adrien said, chuckling.

“In my head, that seemed ruder…” Marinette said. Adrien laughed.

“It’s… a, uh… a Valentine,” Adrien said, and Marinette’s brain exploded, almost making her miss what came next. “But I’ve decided that I want to tell her how I feel to her face!”

Adrien gave Marinette a smile and walked out.

“So… that means… he’s writing his Valentine's to someone else!” Marinette wailed, falling to her knees.

Tikki took the poem and read through it. “But Marinette, wait, this totally sounds like he’s talking about you!”

Marinette grabbed the paper and read through it. She was not convinced.

“What do you think he means by ‘strong disguise’?” she asked.

Tikki smacked her head, and stared at Marinette. “Marinette. You’re a superhero. You’re Ladybug. You literally wear a disguise on a daily basis.”

“Oh, right!” Marinette said, laughing, until her face suddenly fell and froze. “Wait… but that means…”

“Yup!”

“Adrien has a crush on Ladybug!?” For a moment, Marinette panicked. She quickly calmed herself, however. “Well… I can make that work. Tikki, spots on!”

Tikki’s eye twitched. “Fu does not pay me enough for this,” she groaned, as she was sucked into the earrings.

* * *

Kim admired the jewel Max had just handed him to give as his Valentine’s gift. He gave a short laugh and pumped his fist.

“That's perfect, Max! I better hit a home run with this one. Love is like baseball, right? You gotta… strike out? And then… you run around, and I think you get more points if you lose the ball for some reason?” Kim said. Max frowned at him, and folded his arms. “Look, I’m French, I don’t know anything about baseball.”

“Might I suggest a more culturally appropriate metaphor. Football, perhaps, seeing as you actually play that sport,” Max said, giving a small laugh and jabbing Kim’s side with his elbow.

“Meta-who?”

“Ooh! Sparkly! Is that for moi?” Alya asked, as she and Marinette appeared on the scene. She leant over to get a glimpse of the present in Kim’s hands.

“Negative Alya. The recipient of this gem has already been determined, it's-” Max began, but Kim cut him off.

“Shh! Keep it on the down-low!” he said, grabbing Max and covering his mouth.

“Scoop! Kim's got a major crush! Who's the lucky-” Alya said, but she cut herself off before finishing her question. A look of revulsion had crossed her face. She scrutinised Kim, and said, “Wait a minute… it’s Chloé, isn’t it? That’s why you stick up for her and support her all the time, even when she’s being a jerk to everyone, right?”

Kim blushed and stammered, his face falling, all but confirming Alya’s theory. She and Marinette both deflated.

“Oh, Kim,” Marinette sighed, stepping up to him and placing a hand on his arm. “I want to tell you that she’ll love it, but with Chloé… unless it’s obscenely expensive, or she’s decided you’re high enough status that she’ll like you, nothing would persuade Chloé to change…”

Kim sighed and hung his head. “You really think so? I was… nervous, but trying to be hopeful…”

Alya and Marinette both felt crushed on Kim’s behalf.

“Perhaps… there might be another candidate to receive the gift, Kim?” Max prompted, slowly, looking to the girls for support.

“Yeah! Maybe someone you have more in common with,” Alya said.

“I bet there’s gotta be a cute girl on one of your sports teams?” Marinette suggested.

“Well… I guess… there’s this one girl… on my swim team. We have this game together, it’s so much fun, we-”

Kim was laughing and smiling as he began explaining. After a moment, he looked up at the expressions on his friends’ faces, and it clicked.

“Oh!”

And he ran.

* * *

“Voila!” Marinette said, putting down her pen next to her completed Valentine's card.

“Don’t forget to sign it!” Alya said.

Marinette was about to pick her pen back up, when a certain bug happened to land on the card. Alya explained that this an omen of good luck in love.

“Okay, but seriously, don’t forget to sign it. We don’t want a repeat of his birthday, right,” Alya said.

“Right,” Marinette said determinedly, picking her pen back up.

Later, Adrien was feeling dejected over his failure to confess his feelings to Ladybug. He begrudgingly read the card Plagg had passed to him.

“Whoa, hold up! Someone answered my poem? But I threw it away!” he said, reading through. “Signed… Marinette!?”

“Well, anyone who writes as sickeningly sweet as you  _ must _ be your soulmate,” Plagg sighed.

A ladybug flew by and landed on the card.

“Plagg, do you realise what this means!? Marinette is Ladybug!”

“Wait, what?” Plagg said. His face fell, while Adrien danced around his room.

* * *

After her encounter with Dark Cupid, Marinette ran to find a safe place to transform. She headed into the park, and knelt behind a bench.

“Tikki, spots-!”

“Uh… Marinette…” Tikki said, speaking in a stage whisper directly into Marinette’s ear as she hid in Marinette’s collar. “You’ve got to stop trying to transform behind these benches, they’re right in the open!”

Marinette looked around and realised a lot of people were staring at her. She sheepishly and awkwardly walked away.

* * *

Ladybug kept a lookout for Dark Cupid, hanging down from the gutter she’d grabbed with her yoyo.

“Falling for me already, my lady?” Cat Noir said. Ladybug smiled at him in relief as he offered her a hand to get back up. “I need to talk to you when all this is over.”

“It’s going to have to wait. Dark Cupi- oh, you said after. Okay, let’s go!” Ladybug said confidently.

The heroes turned their focus to Dark Cupid, easily dodging his attack. Working together, they made quick work of the akuma.

“Aw… this would have been so much easier if I could have hit one of you with my arrows,” Dark Cupid sighed as Cat Noir shattered the broach.

“Too bad, that’s what happens when Cat Noir and I work together!” Ladybug said, looking at her partner proudly.

“Yeah, we’re the unstoppable Cat and Bug team!”

“You mean the Bug and Cat team,” she corrected, giving him a wink. “You wanted to talk to me, right? So how about tonight, at the Eiffel Tower?”

Cat Noir’s ring beeped before he could reply. He smiled, turned, and ran. “Until tonight, my Lady!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well! That break lasted longer than intended. Not so much just Christmas as... all of winter... Well, now we get the Valentine's episode right on time for Valentine's, so it all works out, right? ^_^'
> 
> Yeah... my plan had been to have this caught up by the time season 3 started airing... oops. In my defence, they said I had until at least March!
> 
> Anyway. Hoping to get back into a fairly regular update schedule so I can, AT LEAST, be caught up by the _end_ of season 3. Next episode will be Horrificator!


	12. Horrificator

“Agent Smith, it's too dangerous! We must evacuate!” Adrien said dramatically. He was crouched behind Miss Bustier’s desk with Mylène as Nino filmed.

Mylène began her monologue about the how the monster had eaten everyone she had known and loved. She cut herself off as Ivan loomed over her in his cloth mask, and Mylène leapt up, attacking Ivan with her fake weapon. Adrien followed suit to the end of the scene.

“And cut! Wow, great job guys. This movie’s gonna be a cinch, and then everyone all over Paris is gonna see!” Nino said proudly. He, Alya, and Marinette moved on to prepare for the next scene.

“Wow, good job, Mylène. I was kinda worried I’d freak you out, looming over you like that. But you kicked my butt!” Ivan said proudly, beaming down at his girlfriend.

“Ivan, I’ve literally been kidnapped by you transformed into a giant rock monster and I was fine. You thought a cloth mask was gonna freak me out?” she asked. She giggled, and hugged her boyfriend while he blushed sheepishly.

The class finished their film, and were accepted into the film festival - admittedly, as a campy pastiche rather than a true horror film, but they made it nonetheless.

* * *

Ivan had found Mylène sat on a bench downstairs, legs clutched against her chest. He’d never really had to help someone who was so upset before, but he wanted to stop her from getting akumatised like he had if he could.

“Don't listen to those bozos. Easy to judge when they're not in front of the camera. You're doing awesome. Come back! I promise I'll roar more quietly,” he said. Mylène looked up at him, and he handed her a badge from his pocket. “Here. It's from my favourite band, the Zombie Skull Crushers.”

“Wow…” Mylène said. She wasn’t quite sure what to say. Ivan knew full well that they didn’t have the same taste in music, but she recognised the gesture. She pinned the badge to her hat and smiled up at Ivan. “Uh, that's, uhh... really sweet of you, Ivan. But... they're right. I can't act to save my life…”

However, Mylène didn’t sound utterly crushed like she had as she fled the classroom. She stood up. “I think it would be better if someone else took over my part and I worked behind the camera.”

Ivan accompanied her hand-in-hand back to the classroom.

* * *

“I'm not scared of that monster, Officer Jones!” Marinette said, staggering through Mylène’s lines. She could improvise decently well for cover-up stories, but reading dialogue was not one of Marinette’s strengths.

Her pulse was hammering like thunder, of course, as Adrien leaned down towards her. She placed her hands on his chest, moving them on instinct, because if she had thought about the action she’d have collapsed into the arms now holding onto her waist. Marinette slammed her eyes shut quickly in the hopes of turning her brain off so she could let herself go in the moment, though not before she saw Adrien’s eyes begin to more slowly flutter closed.

For a moment that lasted a thousand lifetimes, there was nothing. Then, all at once, there was everything. Except it wasn’t a pair of lips that Marinette could feel hers pressing against. It was much flatter and much harder than she’d have expected. She did, however, feel something soft and slightly wet on her nose.

Abruptly opening her eyes, Marinette saw Adrien staring down at her wide-eyed. He was kissing her nose, and she his chin.

They pulled back, Adrien’s hands still on Marinette’s hips, hers still on his chest. They burst into peals of laughter, not looking away from each other. They both turned their cheeks pink from losing their breath.

After a minute or so, they settled down. Adrien smiled at Marinette, and leant back down again. This time, he began to close his eyes first. Marinette rose up slightly onto her toes, and kept her eyes open a fraction longer to better guide their lips.

This time, Marinette and Adrien found each other. His lips pressed around her upper lip, and in turn she had his lower lip between hers. Marinette felt Adrien smile into the kiss, and she gave a light contented sigh. Emboldened, she wrapped her arms around his neck, and felt his move up to wrap around her back, holding her tightly. Eventually, his hands moved further up to cup her cheeks, and Marinette responded by weaving her fingers through Adrien’s hair.

The kiss was eternal yet instant. Neither opened their eyes until a voice snapped them from their reverie.

“So, you guys about done there?” Nino asked.

Marinette and Adrien looked around, and were suddenly reminded of the fact that most of their classmates had been watching them the whole time.

Adrien recovered swiftly. “Uh, yeah. So, how was that? Good take?” he asked.

Alya snorted, but Nino looked disgusted. “No! No, that was obviously not a _good take_!”

“Oh, bummer,” Adrien said, not sounding remotely disappointed. “Guess we’ll have to try it again. Hey, Rose, can I get some juice?”

Meanwhile, Chloé had been captured by the Horrificator. She was freed, drenched in goo, hours later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, rewatching this episode was so much fun. Seasons 2 and 3 often make it hard to remember what it can be like when everything isn't just plain stupid.
> 
> The episode's only real problem isn't even its problem, it's that Origins doesn't make any sense in the slightest. There were a few moments here and there that were weird - Max gives some deadlines that add up to him thinking 11am is in the evening, and the Mayor not letting their film into a STUDENT film festival because he didn't like the effects were bogus - but nothing that amounted to much. Max's is basically just a silly mix up, and the Mayor's a jerk, but the cut from Nino saying the film is awesome to saying they didn't get into the festival is hilarious.
> 
> Of course, the REAL problem with the episode was the missing kiss that Chloé stole from us! That whole scene was inspired by [this](https://lovesquareshippingtrash.tumblr.com/private/182859315276/tumblr_oo7t38WixX1sd4c0x) and [this](https://lovesquareshippingtrash.tumblr.com/private/182877226271/tumblr_p3yxq1UfGN1s5pkrh). I couldn't choose between them, so I figured why not both XD
> 
> So yeah, sorry for a shorter one, but it's just because we had a good episode! Next chapter will _not_ be Dark Blade, Netflix, because Jagged Stone hasn't appeared yet. We're gonna skip that one for now and go on to The Mime! 


	13. The Mime

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Man, this one's even shorter than the last one. In this case I just think it's because the episode didn't really have any substance... they had a cool idea for a villain and tried to put in a story around that, but they just added the bare minimum. Most episodes they either start with the character and build off of them, or they have a solid main plot point to go with and add in the akuma around that. This was pretty much just the definition of filler.
> 
> Main thing I learned in writing it, though, is that the Louvre is pretty much right in the middle of Paris, so it can't be "on the other side of town" like Fred said, and no matter where the others are coming from, he's basically on the way, and it does NOT take long to cross Paris at all.
> 
> Next chapter will be Princess Fragrance, which has a LOT more going on.

Marinette was watching Alya’s video of Ladybug after her recent heroics.

“Uh… that was super,” Marinette said, trying not to either over- or underreact.

“Cool, right? I mean, it was a little weird that she acted like she only kind of knew me and my blog, since she’s literally used my blog to save me in the past, but she still said it was awesome on camera! Awesome! Awesome~!” Alya sang.

“Yeah, that’s… awesome!” Marinette said, with a small smile.

“Let me go grab my laptop,” Alya said, heading back down into Marinette’s room.

Tikki floated up besides Marinette, and asked to see the video. Marinette agreed, but moved to the middle of the balcony to watch. 

“Probably shouldn’t hold Alya’s phone out over the ledge,” Marinette said, giggling. She played the video, sharing a private laugh with Tikki.

Alya returned shortly, and Marinette handed her back her phone.

“Whoa! Did I really space and leave you with my phone? What am I thinking, everyone knows how clumsy you are, I’m surprised you didn’t drop it off the roof, or worse!” Alya said, nudging her friend in the ribs.

“Hey! I’m not that bad!” Marinette said, laughing along with Alya as they went back inside.

* * *

Sarah had had no choice but to have the coach leave for the Eiffel Tower without Fred. Shortly after they left, and she had told Chris that he would be taking Fred’s part, Fred called her.

“Sarah, where are you?” Fred asked over the phone. After everything that had happened, that only served to rile Sarah further.

“We waited for you, but you never came!” she said.

“But I'm on time! In front of the pyramid!” Fred said back.

That, more than anything, just bewildered Sarah. “What are you talking about? Why would we be meeting there?”

Fred, too, had thought it an add choice. “Well I was confused too when Chris told me-”

“Chris?” Sarah said, looking back at the understudy with a frown. Chris sank down in his seat, staring out of the window.

“-But it doesn’t matter, really. If you’re coming from the original meeting place, the Louvre is practically on the way. Or perhaps it would be better if I just took a taxi?” Fred suggested. “I’ll probably be able to get there even before you arrive!”

“Okay. See you soon, Fred,” Sarah sighed. She hung up, and refused to acknowledge Chris any further.

* * *

“Voila! A homemade projector,” Ladybug said, observing the inexplicably perfect projection of the poster onto the Eiffel Tower. “Hey, Mime! Nice poster, don't you think?”

The Mime looked up at the tower, and, enraged, ran at it. He slashed the at the tower, cutting cleanly through the metal. The tower began to collapse.

The tower fell off to one side, away from the Mime, Ladybug, Cat Noir, and the coach.

“You got a  _ shoebox _ and you got the idea to crush Paris under the Eiffel Tower!?” Cat Noir cried out, dashing to intercept the Mime.

Ladybug hurled her yoyo around the falling structure to attempt to secure it, but the tower ultimately collapsed and devastated much of the Champ de Mars.

“Oops,” Ladybug squeaked. “Don’t worry, I can fix that…”

* * *

“I'm so sorry I didn't believe you, Fred,” Sarah said, helping the newly purified Fred back to his feet.

“I'm sorry too. I was so desperate to perform that I lied to you about where we were meeting up,” Chris said, hanging his head in shame.

“Oh, yeah, you’re so fired for that,” Sarah said, turning to him.

Chris opened his mouth and made a noise as though he were about to protest. Instead, he merely sighed, said, “Yeah, that’s fair,” and shuffled away.


	14. Princess Fragrance

Chloé was walking to her car, with Sabrina telling her about Prince Ali’s schedule for the day. She stopped at the curb and saw Tikki, laying motionless on the ground. Chloé shrieked and jumped back from the kwami.

“Sabrina! What  _ is _ that thing? It’s  _ huge _ !” she screamed.

Sabrina bent down to take a closer look. “I think it’s just a toy, Chloé.”

“Oh. Well, I can’t believe how rude some people are, throwing their garbage in the street. You’d never catch me doing that,” Chloé said. She stared expectantly at Sabrina, until Sabrina kicked Tikki out of the way.

Moments later, Rose appeared and asked Chloé to deliver her letter to Prince Ali. Chloé tore the letter to shreds and scattered them on the ground. Nearby, Marinette recovered Tikki.

“Phew, close call, now let’s get you taken care of,” Marinette said quietly, dashing off once Tikki was securely back in her purse.

* * *

Princess Fragrance had stormed Prince Ali’s live press appearance. Unfortunately, Adrien wasn’t watching. The pressures of his many extracurriculars put upon him by his father meant he simply did not have time to sit around channel surfing on the off-chance it alerted him to an attack in Paris.

* * *

“My prince, my prince, smell the fragrance of my eternal love!” Princess Fragrance sang, spraying her perfume under the locked door.

Behind her, Marinette turned on a vacuum and attempted to suck all of the intoxicating mist out of the air. Unfortunately, that’s not how gas works. The sound of the vacuum alerted Princess Fragrance to Marinette’s presence. She spun around and immediately spritzed Marinette in the face.

“At your service, Princess Fragrance,” Marinette wailed, falling into a kneel.

* * *

“What type of cat did you say?” Master Fu asked as he performed his healing rituals on Tikki.

“Cat? Um, right. Rare hairless flying species from the Kingdom of Achu. I was allowed to have one because I won a zoo tap-dancing contest when I was in... the Kingdom of Achu,” Marinette said, grinning broadly.

Master Fu stared at her and sighed. “Wow. I had not realised how poor you were at coming up with cover stories. That was awful. A flying cat? I’m 186, Marinette, I wasn’t born yesterday. Okay, I had hoped to hold off on this for as long as possible, but we need to start your training right away, starting with your improvisational skills. In hindsight, I really should have been open with you from the start, then you would have known to bring Tikki to me when there was a problem, and I could provide you with a note to excuse your absence from school.”

Marinette gaped open-mouthed at the healer as he rattled off information he couldn’t possibly have known. All the while, Fu kept occasionally hitting his gong over Tikki.

* * *

“Nice of you to drop in,” Ladybug said as Cat Noir landed on the barge.

He quickly stood back up and sang, “Give me your Miraculous! Cataclysm!”

Cat Noir rushed at Ladybug, but she tripped him, causing his cataclysm to hit the fireworks control box, short circuiting the whole thing. Ladybug waited, but nothing happened.

“Shoot. I thought destroying the controls would set the fireworks off. Well… time for plan b…” she said. She drew a deep breath and held it as she swung away and the pink cloud surrounded Paris.

* * *

Freed from her akuma, Rose was delighted to find herself in the presence of Prince Ali. She sidled up to him, and clutched onto his arm.

“Um… weren’t you just trying to brainwash and kidnap me?” he asked, trying to edge away from her.

“Yes, but I was akumatised, so that means I’m completely innocent,” Rose said dreamily.

“Yeah… okay, that’s… still weird. I’m going to go with the other girl. She might smell bad, but she just wanted to give a toy to the sick children. Goodbye!” the Prince said cheerily. He pulled away from a distraught Rose and walked away, just as Chloé appeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So fun fact, immediately before rewatching this episode I thought it'd be fun to have an episode that made reference to love locks, apparently completely forgetting that this one prominently features them.
> 
> So many bitty moments in here that just come from the writers having a poor grasp on physics - that's not how gas works!
> 
> Next up will be Animan!


	15. Animan

Kim and Max admired the panther as Otis fed her. Kim was impressed by her diet, but less impressed by her speed.

“60 miles per hour? Is that all? I thought panthers were much faster than that. I bet that I could beat it in a race,” he bragged.

“Impossible. No human being could compete with my panther,” Otis said. Far from sounding irritated, he chuckled at Kim’s confidence.

“Is that so? What place did your cat come in at the County Athletics Tournament? I came in first place!” Kim said.

“You can't possibly compare yourself to my panther, kiddo!” Otis said, still laughing, but trying to hold it back so as to not upset Kim.

“No need to. I'm obviously the better looking one,” Kim said.

The panther did not react in any way, because she was a panther.

“Hey, kitty, kitty. How about a little race with me, huh? Last one's a rotten egg!” Kim said, flexing his biceps.

“Let's see. With a 6 feet-per-second wind behind you and 45 degrees to the north-east... I don't think you'd be a rotten egg. You'd be lunch,” Max said, shooting Kim a smirk.

“Your friend's right, kiddo, I hate to break it to you. Lucky for you the zoo doesn’t like it much when I feed her the visitors,” Otis said with a wink.

Kim snorted, and turned to leave.

“I’m terribly sorry about him, sir, he doesn’t mean to offend,” Max said once Kim was out of earshot.

“Kid, I have 5 year old twin daughters, your buddy making wisecracks is nothing compared to what I’m used to.”

* * *

Recognising Nino’s lack of composure, Adrien was not prepared to take any chances on him messing up again. He said into Nino’s earpiece, “Repeat after me. Yes he is, but first I wanted to take this opportunity to…”

“Yes he is, but first I wanted to take this opportunity to…” Nino repeated, obediently.

“Tell you that I love you, Marinette!” Adrien said.

“Tell you that I love you, Marinette!” Nino said, gasping and freezing as he realised what he had said.

“You what!?” Marinette exclaimed.

“He what!?” Alya screamed, making Marinette flinch.

“Uh, yeah, but, look, don’t worry about it, I’m gonna go…” Nino said, standing up and turning to leave.

“No, wait, Nino, look,” Marinette said, grabbing his hand and pulling him back down onto the bench. She sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s just… I don’t want to hurt you… but, well, the thing is, I was so excited to come here today to get to spend time… with Adrien…”

“With Adrien?” Nino asked, so taken aback he wasn’t even able to be upset.

“With me!?” Adrien gasped.

“Yeah… I’ve… kinda been in love with him practically since he started at our school, when he gave me his umbrella in the rain…” Marinette said, trailing off gently, staring down at her shoes with the dopiest smile.

Nino saw the look on her face and couldn’t find it in himself to be upset. “Whoa, I had no idea you felt like that! That’s awesome Marinette, you two should totally go out! Hey, Adrien! Come over here!”

Nino shouted these words across to the bushes where Adrien was hiding, completely forgetting the fact that he had his earpiece on. Adrien stood up, his face a picture of incredulity. Marinette’s face and stomach both plummeted as she realised that Nino was wearing an earpiece just like her own.

* * *

Adrien was at his wits end after Nino had told Marinette that he liked someone  _ else _ .

“Tell her it's you!” he hissed.

“It's y-” Nino began, dragging out the sound. The joyous expression on Marinette’s face at the thought of him liking another girl propelled him in a different direction; “-your best friend Alya!

As one, Marinette, Alya, and Adrien all cried “What?!”

“Alya? Awesome!” Marinette said. “We should totally double date! You and Alya, me and Adrien!”

Marinette’s excitement had overridden her filters. “Wait, you like Adrien?” Nino said.

“Alya!”

“Adrien!”

They each called out for their dating coaches, both of whom were already exasperated as they headed over.

* * *

Having returned to find Animan had escaped from being tied up in her yoyo trap, Ladybug was trying to understand how that was possible.

“I don't know, but we better find Kim - I mean, that boy, before he does!” Cat Noir said, scratching the back of his head.

Ladybug frowned. “You realise it only became super obvious that you know him when you corrected yourself, right?”

* * *

Alya and Nino were huddled together in the panther’s cage. They were somewhat concerned when the power of the Miraculous returned the panther without letting them out, but the exhausted big cat simply laid down and went to sleep. Nonetheless, the two teens moved to the other side of the enclosure and proceeded to make out.

Following Ladybug’s instructions, Otis had returned to the zoo to check all of the animals were okay.

“Alya!?” he bellowed upon finding his daughter locked inside his panther’s pen. “What are you doing here?”

“Dad, finally! Ladybug put us in here to keep us safe,” Alya said, leading Nino by the hand to the door as Otis opened it.

“Ladybug put you inside a panther’s enclosure to keep you safe?” Otis repeated.

“Well, yeah, seeing as how _someone_ let all the animals loose!” Alya retorted, prodding Otis in the chest.

“Hold up. Alya, this is your dad? Your dad is the zookeeper in charge of the new panther that we specifically came here to see? And you didn’t mention it!?” Nino asked.

Alya shrugged. “It just never came up.”

“And who is this?” Otis growled, rounding on Nino. Nino gulped.

“Uh-uh, nope! You don’t get to be mad at me for anything today, you just got akumatised because a teenage boy teased you that he could run faster than your cat. Come on, Nino,” Alya said, clutching her new boyfriend’s shirt and pulling him away.

“Nice meeting you, sir!” Nino called back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Otis is such a baby. There's no way they'd decided he was a father to four girls, two of whom were 5 year old twins, when they wrote this. He has the least mature reason for getting akumatised out of anyone in his family.
> 
> Speaking of immature dads, next chapter is Simon Says - get ready for Gabriel!


	16. Simon Says

Hawk Moth’s window to the city skyline opened for him to make his latest ominous proclamation.

“The Challenge... what an interesting concept. A TV show with such potential for negative emotions. Oh, the destructive mayhem we could cause…” he said, laughing maniacally. His window then promptly closed. “Nooroo, dark wings, fall!”

Hawk Moth’s transformation dropped, leaving Nooroo looking perplexedly at Gabriel.

“Master, aren’t you going to akumatise someone?” he asked, watching as Gabriel dashed over to his exit elevator.

“Not yet! First I have to inspire the destructive mayhem! My plan is brilliant!” Gabriel said, grinning to himself.

“But… then why did we come here in the first place?” Nooroo asked. He floated over to Gabriel’s side.

Gabriel’s grin dropped. As the elevator began descending, he snapped his fingers, and Nooroo’s mouth vanished.

* * *

“Hilarious. Your show is pathetic. And so is your contestant. Control me? Never,” Gabriel declared, cutting off his call to the studio with the push of a button.

He immediately stood up again and dashed back over to his secret elevator, pushing the buttons hidden in his wife’s portrait.

“Greatest… evil… plan… ever…” he panted, as he was transported back to his lair.

* * *

Simon Says burst into the recording studio, dramatically declaring, “Simon says the show is not over!”

“What on earth?!” Alec gasped.

“Ah! You! You’re the malicious swine that unjustly kicked me off the show!” Simon Says cried.

“Me!? No, I was just… it’s Gabriel Agreste’s fault!” Alec wailed.

“Gabriel Agreste? Please! He’s an arrogant jerk nonetheless, but you lied to him about the nature of the show just to get him to appear! It wasn’t his fault I was given an unwilling participant, and then taunted for failure without getting to demonstrate my talent! I seriously don’t understand how you became a reality TV host without  _ any _ people skills!” Simon Says hissed. “Simon says you are just like your popularity - plummeting! Off of the roof!”

Simon threw a card at Alex, who proceeded to act like an aeroplane and take off for the building’s roof.

* * *

Ladybug and Nino ran around the studio looking for Adrien. Adrien had managed to double back around and so was able to bump into them.

“Nino!” Adrien called out.

“Adrien!” Nino called back, running up to hug his friend. “Dude, you okay?”

“I'm fine,” he said, but his focus was on Ladybug. It struck him how this was the first time he was properly meeting her as Adrien - the first time they’d met at all, from her perspective. He wanted to keep his cool, but without the anonymity of his mask he felt exposed. “Um… I’ve loved you from the first time you saved Paris, and that love grows deeper with every passing moment.”

Ladybug blinked.

“I mean… hello,” he amended.

“Uh… my passion burns for you with the intensity of a thousand suns,” Ladybug said.

Adrien I blinked.

“I mean… hello. You sure you’re okay?”

Nino stared at them in utter revulsion. “Kill me now.”

* * *

Gabriel recoiled briefly at Cat Noir’s admonition. Nobody  _ dared _ speak to him like that. He regained his composure when it became clear that the hero felt he had crossed a boundary.

“Quite a temper. You remind me of someone,” he said, stroking his chin.

He watched as Cat Noir used the remote to open the secure window, heading out and locking Gabriel inside. Gabriel turned to the portrait of his wife behind him. Then he rushed up to it, pushed the buttons, and headed back to his lair.

“Best… plan… ever! Nooroo! Nooroo, do the… the thing. You know, the dark wings. Give me a break here, I’m exhausted,” Gabriel sighed.

* * *

Moments before Ladybug came to open his bathroom door, Cat Noir landed inside his bathroom and dropped his transformation. He got the shower on in the nick of time.

“A-Adrien?” Ladybug called. She squeaked upon realising that Adrien was actually  _ in  _ the shower.

“Yeah?” he said, sticking his head around the corner.

Ladybug’s brain failed her. “Oh! Must... it-eh, to go! Hehe. Too dangerous... to leave!”

“Can I put on my clothes first?” Adrien joked, careful to play up his charade.

Ladybug’s eye twitched as his words painted a picture, and all sense of logical reasoning abandoned her. “Nope! Way too dangerous! You can grab a towel but it’s time to go!”

She walked through the first part of the bathroom, grabbing a towel on the way, and tossing it to Adrien as she stepped into the room.

“Wait, what!?” Ladybug said. She frowned at Adrien’s disappointing state of dress. “You’re already dressed? And not wet at all? What’s going on here?”

Adrien froze up and made the poor choice of responding on instinct. He took off his shirt. Ladybug’s face was as red as her suit as she said, “I accept.” She scooped him into her arms bridal style and carried him out.

* * *

Gabriel burbled as he made his way out onto the studio roof, truly convinced he was an aeroplane. He ran up to the roof’s edge. The wave of the Miraculous Ladybug was spreading, but not fast enough; Gabriel leapt straight off of the roof. As he was neither an aeroplane nor a butterfly, he failed to take off.

When Ladybug and Cat Noir came to the roof moments later, they looked over the edge at the sight below.

“Welp,” Ladybug said.

“Can’t win them all,” Cat Noir said.

“Still, I bet Adrien will need a lot of comfort. I should probably…” Ladybug said, turning to leave.

“Yes! You should definitely do that! A lot!” Cat Noir said. Ladybug gave him a bemused smile as she took off back to the Agreste Mansion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man do I hate Alec though.
> 
> In The Bubbler we notably don't see Gabriel after Nino is akumatised despite him being central to the plot. This time they kept cutting back and forth between Hawk Moth and Gabriel... so a lot of this must actually be canon.
> 
> Super fun episode to rewatch though, would recommend. Next episode is also a good rewatch with a lot of solid gags - it's time to deal with the mess that Jagged Stone brings to the timeline, starting with Pixelator.


	17. Pixelator

“Do you have Marinette and Alya on your list, Mr Bourgeois?” Miss Bustier asked the mayor. She had escorted most of her class to their work experience positions already, and Marinette and Alya were the last two left.

“It doesn't look like it…” André said.

After a moment, Chloé called over to her father from the front desk, waving a sheet of paper at him. He rushed over, glanced at it, and exclaimed with delight that he knew where the two girls would be working.

“Actually, I think it would be best if I redistributed these assignments, to ensure that all of the needs of my students are met. You understand, of course, Mr Bourgeois? After all, if we were elsewhere, you’d want me to ensure that Chloé is given a task that was appropriate for her, right?” Miss Bustier said, smiling sweetly as she took both lists. She pulled out a pen and crossing names out and rewriting them elsewhere.

“Um - well - yes, of course,” André spluttered.

“So let’s see… ah, yes, Chloé, of course, has much more experience around the hotel, so it makes the most sense if she acts as a gopher. Let’s see… they would be better here… and them here… and Marinette, you have plenty of experience in customer service at your parents’ bakery… so we’ll have you and Adrien on room service together,” she said happily, handing the list back to the mayor.

Adrien shrugged and immediately pushed himself free of Chloé, and took a blushing, spluttering Marinette by the hand upstairs.

* * *

“Just saying, it’s better in the long run to do it right the first time,” Tikki warned Marinette.

Marinette looked up as she heard a gasp. A woman and her child were staring and pointing at Tikki.

“Meow?” Tikki said hopefully.

“What is that thing!? It just said ‘meow’, like it thinks it can trick me into thinking it’s a cat!” the woman shrieked, drawing a lot of attention. A crowd quickly gathered around, many of them getting a good look at Tikki before she could hide herself in Marinette’s bag.

Marinette took off running, but not without plenty of pictures being taken of her. Marinette wound up on the news, reported as possessing a mysterious red creature. Naturally, Hawk Moth easily recognised that this was a kwami, and began specifically targeting Marinette. Marinette was forced to go into hiding. For a while she considered that the same might be needed for her friends and family, but with a pang she realised that Hawk Moth already targeted them as it was, and having them with her all the time would only make them all more vulnerable.

Jagged Stone never got his shades.

* * *

Adrien watched as Chloé sauntered up to Pixelator and rudely explained that he was not welcome. He watched as Pixelator claimed to be her biggest fan. He watched as Pixelator captured her with his camera. He did not intervene.

Purely, of course, because he knew he was needed as Cat Noir, and that Chloé would ultimately be safe. Not because he was happy to watch her get captured. Of course not.

* * *

“See you later, alligator,” Pixelator said, shooting and capturing Fang.

“What!? Fang!? Fang! Who are-!?” Jagged cried out, but he was cut off as Pixelator did not monologue, but instead zapped Jagged before he could finish speaking.

* * *

Ladybug leapt around the room, barely dodging Pixelator’s shots. Eventually, however, she was caught - he snapped a picture of her arm. His power travelled up her arm, and soon she was gone, captured and sent to his photo realm, working in exactly the same way as it had on everyone else.

* * *

Ladybug had found Vincent Aza’s house. Inside, she found it plastered with pictures of Jagged, and muttered to herself how weird it was. After speaking to Adrien and Chloé, she found Mireille and Théo together in another picture.

“What happened to you?” Ladybug asked.

“It's terrible! This man, he... took a photo of us and we ended up trapped in here!” Théo said.

“While we were just innocently strolling the Champs-Élysées!” Mireille added.

“Wait a minute… you’re that creepy guy who was obsessed with me, right!? And now you’re dating another teenage girl? Forget it, you can stay trapped here, creep!” Ladybug spat, before rushing off to fight Pixelator to free everyone else.

* * *

“Pixelator, I know your akuma is inside your glasses!” Ladybug called out, loud and clear. She had spotted Cat Noir approaching from behind, who nodded his recognition to her.

Cat Noir snuck up behind Pixelator, while civilians looked on. One considered calling out and cheering Cat Noir on, but realised at the last moment how incredibly stupid that would be. Cat Noir was thus able to grab and shatter Pixelator’s glasses, freeing the akuma and stripping the villain of his powers.

* * *

“Thank you very much for this work experience day, Mr. Bourgeois. I'm sure we'll all remember it for a long time to come,” Miss Bustier said.

“So will I,” André said. Penny cleared her throat. “Oh! Wait, I almost forgot. Jagged Stone's giving a concert tonight, so, I'm giving tickets to the students who demonstrated the greatest effort today.

Penny handed out tickets to Marinette, Adrien, Alya, and Nino, making a show of skipping over Chloé.

Chloé scoffed and wailed. “This is ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous! Daddy! Why don’t  _ I _ have a ticket!?”

“Because you’re a spoiled brat, my dear,” André said perfectly cheerfully. Everyone, including Adrien, voiced their agreement.

* * *

Everyone cheered for Jagged as he came onto the stage. Adrien shouted out to his friends beside him, “It’s my first live concert! Ever! It’s amazing!”

“Yeah… amazing…” Marinette sighed dreamily.

“Oh really?” Alya said, a gleam in her eye. “Well, you know, it’s a rule that you’re supposed to make out at concerts.”

She grabbed Nino and pulled him in to demonstrate. Marinette’s eyes and mouth went wide in terror, but Adrien simply shrugged.

“Well, if that’s the rule,” he said, spinning Marinette around.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of little bitty bits here. Have I mentioned how much I hate Théo?
> 
> I really like this episode. It's got some of the best jokes in the show. Just go back and rewatch the scene of Ladybug and Jagged in Damocles's office, it's fantastic.
> 
> I really need to get caught up though. I've got so much to say on Animaestro, and I'm sure I'll have plenty for Oblivio too.
> 
> Next chapter we're dropping Dark Blade back in, as it has Jagged already familiar with Chloé and her father, but not having the connection with Marinette yet... even though she acts totally starstruck over him then like she hadn't personally designed something he wore on stage. But there's only so much I can do!


	18. Darkblade

Alya had called Marinette unexpectedly while the latter was working on her campaign speech for class president.

“Chloé's invited the whole class to her campaign launch party at City Hall, and she's got Jagged Stone coming, too!” Alya explained.

“Seriously? Jagged Stone, my favourite star?! I love him! Oh, and so does everyone else…” Marinette said.

“Uh… yeah, M, I know, we went to the concert together last week… Anyway, she's trying to buy student votes with autographs!” Alya said.

“Not if I have anything to say about it! Meet you there!” Marinette said, dashing for her trap door.

“Uhh, Marinette, aren’t you forgetting something?” Tikki said, hovering pointedly over Marinette’s diary, sitting unlocked in its new “magic box”.

Marinette grinned, gave a short laugh, and dashed across the room. She slammed the box shut and locked before heading out.

From around the corner, Sabrina watched as Marinette dashed away. She informed her boss that she was on the move, and made her way inside.

Heading up to the bakery counter, she said, “Hi there! Marinette borrowed my math book for our Geometry homework, but I need it back.”

“I’m sorry, who are you? I don’t recognise you, and I’m sure I know Marinette’s friends,” Sabine said shrewdly. She continued serving customers as she spoke.

“Oh, I’m Sabrina,” Sabrina said. Her bright smile hid the flashing red warning light inside her head very effectively.

“Right,” Sabine said, with a confident smile. “Well, Marinette just left, and I’m afraid I have customers to serve, so you’ll have to wait until she gets back.”

Sabine closed the till with particular force to emphasise her point, and Sabrina left without another word, despite Chloé’s shrill shrieks coming from her pocket.

* * *

Horrified that they were falling for Chloé’s tricks, it was all Marinette could do to try to remove the wool from their eyes.

“Do you realise that you're all being bribed? Concert tickets are awesome, but they aren't gonna solve classroom problems,” she said.

“Oh, yeah, we know that,” Nathaniel said.

“You do?” Marinette said. She blinked several times.

“Yeah, of course! We’re just here to get a free signed CD and meet Jagged Stone! You know, not counting last week at the hotel…” Nino chuckled.

“You didn’t really think we’d vote for Chloé over you, did you, Marinette?” Rose piped up. “She literally threatened me to keep me from running myself!”

“Well… guess I had nothing to worry about then!” Marinette said. She grinned and rubbed the back of her neck.

* * *

“What took you so long? You'd better have gotten her diary!” Chloé growled as Sabrina returned.

“I sure did!” Sabrina said, holding up the little pink book. “I had to smash open some box that closed around my hand”, but no biggie.”

She approached the rest of the class and cleared her throat. “Listen up everybody! You think Marinette’s so great? Well did you know that she…” Sabrina paused to flick through the pages in search of incriminating information. “...is Ladybug!? What!?”

A dozen gaping faces turned to Marinette as hers turned pale. Chloé burst out laughing on the other side of the room.

“I knew it!” Alya called, pumping her fist into the air. “See Nino, I told you!”

“For real, Marinette? This is so awesome! I can’t believe Ladybug is in our class! And she’s gonna be our class rep!” Nino said.

“Let’s hear it for Ladybug!” Ivan cheered, and the room, including André and Jagged, applauded Marinette.

* * *

With their situation looking bleak, Marinette stepped onto the scene to take charge where the literal Mayor of Paris had failed. Under her instruction, everyone worked together to barricade the door.

As they put the finishing touches into place, a knight came crashing through the window, rolling onto the floor. Following them, the rest of the army began climbing through the new makeshift entrance.

“Ah, right. Glass is breakable,” Marinette sighed. “New plan; RUN!”

* * *

Hawk Moth watched gleefully as Darkblade’s dark wave spread across Paris, turning everyone it touched into his loyal knights.

“It won't be long before Ladybug and Cat Noir show up to meet their doom! I mean, they’re already there, but…” he said, but he cut himself off as the wave of darkness reached into his lair. “Oh, I really should have thought this through better…”

* * *

Marinette returned from battle to find her classmates working together to take down their barricade. She frowned to herself at the thought that the Miraculous Ladybug had not done that work for them.

“So where were you? Safely hiding under a rock?” Chloé said, showing up, apparently, purely to spite Marinette.

“Very funny, Chloé. I got transformed... into a knight… you know,  _ just like you did _ !”

“So did I! What a knight-mare!” Adrien wailed, dashing down the stairs passed them.

Chloé and Marinette both stared after him.

“What’s Adrien doing here? He had fencing practise today…” Marinette said. She tapped her chin.

“Did he really just show up, out of nowhere… to make a knight pun!?” Chloé groaned.

Marinette sighed, putting her face in her hands. “I am going to kill that cat.”

* * *

With Chloé’s deception and thievery exposed, Alya came up to Marinette. “At least now we know nobody will be voting for Chloé! You're gonna be our new representative!”

“Uh... Not so fast, Alya,” Marinette said.

Chloé leapt at the opportunity. “Ha ha ha! See? She's undependable! She's already throwing in the towel!”

“No, I'm not! I just wanna be voted in fairly, not because you don't wanna vote for Chloé, but because you believe in me! I'm not gonna make promises that I can't keep, and I'm not gonna be able to get you everything that you want. But I am resourceful and I know how to prioritise. I'm a good listener and a great multi-tasker. Representing you all is something I truly believe in. And most importantly, I believe in myself. So... vote for Marinette, for class representative!”

The class cheered. Adrien, behind Marinette, cheered hardest of all.

_ Wow, that speech was incredible! Marinette is awesome! She sounded just like… like Ladybug… when she stood up to Hawk Moth back at the beginning… when I realised that I was totally in love with her…  _ Adrien’s eyes widened at the thought.  _ Uh oh. _

* * *

The class had voted, and the votes had been counted. All that was left was for Miss Bustier to announce the winner.

“By unanimous vote, Marinette is the new class representative, and Alya will be her deputy,” the teacher proudly declared.

“Hold on, unanimous!? Sabrina, even  _ you _ didn’t vote for me!?” Chloé cried.

“Well… um… you didn’t vote for yourself, either,” Sabrina squeaked, shrinking away from her best friend.

“Yeah… well… Dupain-Cheng made some good points… or whatever!” Chloé said. She looked out of the window as her cheeks turned crimson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not like I like you or anything, baka!
> 
> Another fun episode with no major structural issues. I'm remembering why we all fell in love with this show in the first place. XD
> 
> Next up will be Guitar Villain, see you then!


	19. Guitar Villain

Jagged was alone in his room, and had decided to torture himself by watching an interview with Mr XY. His end game was to try to understand what the hype could possibly be.

“Why am I number one? Simple. It's not about music, it's about technology. This computer is programmed to produce music and lyrics people will like. It's guaranteed success. I’m basically completely irrelevant. They’re even working on a hologram of me over at the Eiffel Tower. They just use my pretty face and I get paid like crazy! I’m even admitting this live on national TV and the sheeple out there will still eat it all up!”

XY collapsed into fits of laughter as he finished ranting. Jagged slowly turned off his tablet, and sat in silent contemplation.

* * *

Fang snapped at the akuma as it flew through the air, but he couldn’t stop the butterfly from making contact with Jagged’s guitar. Hawk Moth began his spiel.

“Guitar Villain, I am Hawk Moth. I'm giving you-”

“A terrible name?” Jagged said.

“What!?” Hawk Moth cried.

“‘Guitar Villain’? Seriously, that’s the best you’ve got? That’s so lame! You just took the thing I was holding and said ‘villain’? What about ‘The Jagged Stone Experience’ or ‘Van Hell-en’, ‘Rolling Jagged Stone’ or ‘Bohemian Anarchy’? Give me a real rock and roll name, not something so pathetic!” Jagged said, shaking his head in dismay.

Hawk Moth was rather taken aback. “N- No, it’s - it’s a reference to being a guitar hero, an iconic guitar player… but as a villain…”

“I do more than just play guitar you know,” Jagged said, setting his instrument aside to emphasise his point.

“Look, I’m going to turn your crocodile into a dragon, okay?”

“Seriously? Then why wouldn’t you go with Dragon Fender Telecaster! You’ve got a lot to learn, Hawk Moth,” Jagged sighed, as he stood up to allow Hawk Moth’s power to overtake him.

* * *

As Adrien got out of his car outside the Grand Paris, he noticed Marinette on her way out. “Hey. Marinette!” he called over, but she was clearly deep in thought. He called again, “Hey, hi!”

“Hey! Oh, uh… what's going on?” Marinette said, but, deciding this greeting was unacceptable, continued, “I mean, how's up? I mean, oh, uh…”

She slapped herself in the face. While Adrien attempted to process this, Chloé appeared in the doorway, shoved Marinette aside, then ran up to Adrien and flung her arms around him.

“Hi, Adrikins! There you are. Amazing Chloé has got a surprise for you! She-”

“Yeah, that’s great Chloé,” Adrien said, but he was frowning and taking her hands off of his chest. "But I was actually trying to talk to Marinette, who you’ve just pushed out of the way. That’s not cool, you need to be more careful.”

Adrien left Chloé behind, approaching Marinette. He put a comforting arm around her shoulder, walking away with her and speaking softly. “Are you okay, Marinette? You seem distracted. What was up with hitting yourself? You need to be kinder to yourself, okay?”

* * *

“Do you see what I see, Tikki?!” Marinette cried, staring up at the sky and gaping.

“If you see a dragon, then yes I do!” Tikki said back, watching the monster breathe green flames carelessly.

“I've got to transform!” Marinette said.

She ran towards a tree, but caught herself before she got there. “Aha! See, Tikki, I’m learning! I  _ was _ going to transform by this tree, but then I remembered that people could still see me from any other direction!”

“Well done Marinette, but maybe we can praise your common sense later? Cat Noir is in mortal jeopardy,” the kwami pointed out. Marinette nodded, putting her game face back on.

* * *

Having arrived at the Eiffel Tower, Guitar Villain bore down on Mr XY. “I found you at last, XY! Ready for the show?”

“Dude, are you Jagged Stone?” XY asked.

“Was Jagged Stone. Now I'm Guitar Villain! Ha ha, don't worry, you're not gonna become one of my fans. You don't-” Guitar Villain began, but XY cut him off.

“Wow, I uh… this is kind of embarrassing, but I actually _am_ a huge fan of yours,” XY said. He gave a nervous but earnest grin. Guitar Villain lowered his weapon.

“You’re  _ what _ !?”

“Yeah… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it to go so far. I was just trying to get your attention, hoping we could do that duet. I grew up on your music!” XY said. Despite his predicament, he couldn’t help but beam up at his idol.

“Well… this is a little awkward…” Guitar Villain said. He turned away from XY and scratched the back of his neck.

“Can I… get an autograph?” XY said hopefully. Guitar Villain smiled and extended XY a hand.

* * *

As soon as the can of hairspray appeared in her hand, Ladybug knew exactly what to do with it.

“Go get ‘em, Cat Noir!” she called, and Cat Noir leapt into action.

He flew threw the air and brought his staff down against Guitar Villain, who deflected the attack. Cat Noir landed heavily onto the plank of wood…

...which, already heavily damaged, snapped. XY plummeted from the tower faster than Ladybug or Cat Noir could move to catch him.

“Man, we have to be more careful about heights,” Ladybug sighed, pressing her palm to her forehead.

* * *

Marinette was showing Alya the copy of Metal Lourd featuring a piece on Jagged’s new album, including her cover design, when Adrien approached.

“Um... h-hey there, Marinette,” he said, beaming at her and immediately blushing. Marinette tried to lean against a wall that wasn’t there, but swiftly recovered. “So, actually I'm a huge stone of Jagged Fan - I mean, a Jagged Stone of huge fan - I mean-”

“A huge fan of Jagged Stone?” Alya offered. She was looking at Adrien with a sly smile and a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, that’s it! A-anyway, I saw you designed his new album cover?”

“I...I did! Crazy, huh?” Marinette chuckled.

“I... wanted to ask if... I could get it... grautotaphed?” Adrien said, giving her a toothy grin.

“Um… autographed?” Marinette suggested.

“Y-yeah, exactly, tautophaphed,” Adrien said, nodding hard.

“Um, okay, sure... uh, I'll ask him,” Marinette said, taking the pen and cd from Adrien. Alya was glancing between the pair, waiting for any acknowledgement from either one about this new development.

“Ah, n-no. Um, actually, I meant... you?”

“Me?  _ Me _ ?” Marinette gasped. Her cheeks tinted pink now too, but nonetheless she obliged and scrawled her signature on the cover.

“Awesome! Thanks, Marinette! Wow…” Adrien said. He took the cd and pen back, and beamed, but his eyes were fixed on Marinette.

He began to walk away, but forgot to turn around or look away from Marinette. He ended up tripping, but Marinette, so used to falling herself, was prepared. She caught Adrien with an arm around his shoulders, and he supported himself by grabbing her. They both blushed and stared at each other. Then they burst into laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jagged Stone is one of the best characters in this show. His friendship with Marinette is great.
> 
> Enjoyed this episode, and love that ending... but I am SOOO here for a role reversal on these too.
> 
> Next up will be Kung Food - my favourite episode from season 1!


	20. Kung Food

Marinette and her uncle sat in silence. Marinette couldn’t read him; she had no idea if he was utterly livid or perfectly content. She was extremely on edge, however, waiting for Alya’s help to arrive. When the doorbell finally rang, she nearly fell over on her way to answer.

“Hey Marinette,” said Adrien, the last person she expected to see behind the door.

“Adrien!?” Marinette cried amid heavy gasps. She moved her hands all around her face in a way that seemed oddly familiar to Adrien. “What in the-? What are you-?”

“Alya called me. She said you needed someone who speaks Chinese? Well, here I am! Translator at your service,” Adrien said, offering Marinette a bow.

She blinked. “Okay, first, that was adorable. Second, you… dropped everything to come here to help me?”

“Of course,” he said brightly.

“But… your schedule is always so tight. Surely you’re really busy today?”

“I had to pull some strings, rearrange a few appearances, but I’ll always be there for a friend in need.”

“Oh, so you’d do the same thing for anyone at school?” Marinette asked. She felt a mix of disappointment and a relief from pressure.

“Well, not just anyone.”

“...Chloé?”

Adrien shook his head, frowning.

“Nino?”

“I mean, I’d be there for him if I could, but…”

Marinette felt slightly dizzy, and her throat felt tight. When she spoke, her voice squeaked. “So...um… just me?”

Adrien tapped his chin, thoughtfully. “I guess so. Huh.”

Adrien beamed at Marinette. Marinette fainted.

* * *

On the drive to Le Grand Paris, Marinette stared out of the window while Adrien kept Wang Cheng busy in conversation. She tuned back in, however, when she could suddenly understand him.

“My English very bad. Not like your Chinese,” he said to Adrien.

“Uh… we’re speaking French,” Marinette pointed out. “Because, you know… this is France.”

“French, English, whatever, it’s all Latin,” Wang Cheng said, waving a dismissive hand in the air.

“I thought you couldn’t speak any French,” Adrien said.

“Me too,” Marinette added.

“Well, actually, I’m quite fluent, but it’s just a lot of fun to mess with people who think I don’t speak it. For instance, listening to two teenagers who think I don’t understand who obviously like each other.”

He slapped his knee laughing. Adrien caught Marinette’s eye, and they both chuckled nervously.

* * *

“Oh look who it is! My favorite person, Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” said Chloé, as she approached Marinette and Adrien in the hotel lobby, wearing a malicious sneer across her face. “I mean, seriously? Does your uncle really expect to win the contest with a SOUP!? It's not even a main dish! Please! Doesn't he know how to make sushi like everyone else?”

“Chloé, you racist jerk, Japanese people make sushi. Cheng Shifu is Chinese,” Adrien said, pointing a scowl at Chloé. Marinette and Chloé were both a little taken aback by his aggressiveness, but did not comment on it.

As Marinette continued calling Chloé out, Adrien cheered her on.

“Oh, dang!”

“You tell her, Marinette!”

“Buuuuurn!”

When Chloé ultimately stormed off, he called after her, “Yeah, just walk away!”

“Thanks for your support, Adrien… but I thought you liked Chloé?” Marinette asked.

“Not if she’s going to go around being racist, or needlessly unkind to my friends. Plus, she’s needed to be called out for a long time. All in all, that was one of the most awesome things I’ve ever seen!”

Marinette blushed, but grinned. "Same!"

* * *

Chloé had a vindictive plan to ensure that Marinette’s uncle would not win the competition; all she had to do was get just a few moments alone in the kitchen.

She pushed open the door ready to distract Wang Chen into leaving.

“Excuse me, Chloé, but I’m afraid you can’t come in at the moment, we’re recording. You’ll have to wait until Cheng Shifu is ready to present!” Alec said.

Alongside Wang Cheng in the kitchen was a camera crew for World’s Greatest Chef, to document his cooking process. Chloé quietly backed herself out of the room.

* * *

Ladybug and Cat Noir made it to the rooftop just in time to watch as Kung Food began to lower Chloé into his soup. Instead of leaping into action, however, they stood by and watched.

“Man, you’d think it’d get boring, watching Chloé go through mortal peril over and over. But it’s not at all,” Cat Noir said, leaning on his staff for support.

“Honestly, it’s pretty satisfying,” Ladybug said with a shrug.

Chloé wailed as she became submerged, while Kung Food laughed in triumph.

* * *

While Marinette and her uncle worked together on his soup, Adrien watched on - until Chloé interrupted the happy scene.

“Seriously? Still making soup? I told you I hate soup! Y-” she began, but she was cut off.

“Jeez, Chloé, get over yourself, nobody cares in the slightest what you think!” Adrien snapped.

“B- but Adrikins-!”

“Begone!”

With a “humph!” Chloé stormed off.

“Marry me!” Marinette squeaked, unable to stop herself.

“I’d love to. Just as a friend, of course,” Adrien said, with a wink and a smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my favourite season 1 episode. It has it all! Marinette and Adrien spending lots of time together, Marinette holding normal conversations with Adrien, and something no other episode has; Adrien actually calling Chloé out on her crap! If you only watched this episode, you wouldn't even know Adrien and Chloé are supposed to be friends.
> 
> Next up is the Gamer, which has a lot of those same things I loved about Kung Food :D


	21. Gamer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gamer, Reflekta, what's the difference right? ^_^'
> 
> This chapter was originally mistitled Reflekta. As mentioned at the end, I'd just finished writing that episode before posting this. OOPS. Thanks to Lady_LB and Miraculous_Manatee for pointing this out.

Marinette was confused to find her classmates and her principal gathered around a large screen in the school library. She approached her best friend and asked, “What's going on, Alya?” but Alya merely shushed her.

“Tryouts for the Paris Ultimate Mecha Strike III Tournament! The school sends the two students with the highest scores!” Rose exclaimed.

“Actually, the tryouts are for a partner to team up with Max in the Tournament,” Kim said, swelling with pride.

“Well… that’s really cool and all, but we _need_ to research this term paper, Alya,” Marinette said.

“Oh, right! I totally spaced on that!” Alya said, smacking her own forehead. She put her phone away, and retreated with Marinette to find the books they needed.

* * *

Alya dragged Marinette away from the rest of the class to have stern words regarding Marinette’s interest in the competition. Marinette did not hide the fact that she was excited by the prospect of teaming up with Adrien.

“Are you out of your mind, girl? This is about stepping up and representing! Not snuggling up and snogging! This is serious business!” Alya hissed.

“Okay, first, it’s a high school video game competition, it is  _ not _ that big a deal. Second, what makes you think I don’t also just want to take part for my own sake?” Marinette said, frowning. She walked back to ask Mr Damocles for a chance to try out.

As Marinette readied herself for the game, she was surprised to find that Max felt it necessary to explain the core concept of the game to her.

“Uhh… hey, Max, why exactly are you explaining the basic rules of the game?” she asked.

“Oh! Well, uh, I assumed that you were… unfamiliar…” he said, shiftily.

“You thought I was challenging you to represent the school in a citywide competition in a game I’ve never played before?” she asked, raising her eyebrow. “Did you assume the same about Adrien?”

Max looked like a deer caught in headlights. His eyes flickered over the others in the room, but the most he got was a shake of the head from Kim. “W-well, no, he- he- he-”

“Oh, wow, seriously? Because I’m a girl?” Marinette said in disgust, but not she couldn't find it in herself to be all that surprised. “I’m not a total noob, thank you very much.”

Fuelled by her righteous rage, Marinette defeated Max without taking a single hit. Nobody had the slightest sympathy for Max as he left, shamed on multiple levels. He did, however, recognise and accept that he had been in the wrong.

* * *

“So, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Adrien Agreste will represent Françoise Dupont High School at the Paris Ultimate Mecha Strike III Tournament. Good luck to both of you,” Mr Damocles said.

“Oh, wait, right, shoot, I can’t play! There’s no way my father will give me the time off to practise or take part. I’m sorry everyone, I think you’ll have to give my place to Max,” Adrien said. He sighed wistfully, and left to find Max.

* * *

Marinette was on cloud nine as she headed home, sighing with delight over getting to be alone with Adrien.

**“** If all you wanted to do is spend time with Adrien, there are other ways to do that!” Tikki scolded.

“It’s not just about that Tikki, I love playing Mecha Strike, it’s just icing on the cake that it means I get to spend time with Adrien,” Marinette said. She looked down and saw her kwami frowning. “What? Max isn’t the only one who likes video games. It’s the 2010s, video games aren’t a niche hobby. I’m not going to feel guilty over being good at something I enjoy and getting to do it with the boy I like.”

Marinette halted in her steps, horror struck, as it clicked that Adrien would be coming to her house.

“No, this is a total disaster! I have to clean my room!” Marinette wailed once she was home, staring at her Agreste-plastered walls.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you all along!” Tikki said.

At this, Marinette completely snapped out of her stupor. “What? No you haven’t, you’ve been guilt-tripping me over beating Max. You don’t get to act like a jerk and try to take the moral high ground, Tikki,” Marinette said. Marinette did not wait for a response before setting to work on tugging down her posters.

* * *

Throughout Marinette and Adrien’s practise, Tom and Sabine attempted to offer the pair freshly baked snacks. Marinette knew that they were really just trying to spy on her alone with a boy, so she refused every time, hoping to dissuade them. Adrien, on the other hand…

“Everything going good? I thought just in case you wanted something to eat...”

“Uh... no thanks, Papa. We're training.”

“Anyone want cookies? They hot from the oven!”

“Papa, we're trying to work here!”

“How about a delicious salmon and spinach pie? You can tell me what you think of it?”

Marinette gave a low growl, but Adrien had had enough.

“Marinette, for the love of all that is good, please! Let me eat your parents’ delicious baking!”

He dashed across the room and grabbed a slice of pie, devouring it in an instant.

* * *

From within the cockpit of his mech, Gamer had spotted Marinette at the park. Naturally, being a villain, he couldn’t help but gloat.

“See Marinette, now I will prove that I truly am the greatest at Ultimate Mecha Strike III!” he cackled.

“Wait… Max!? Are you serious, because I beat you in a video game?” Marinette asked.

Gamer sneered. “Actually it’s about ethics in gaming journalism.”

“Yeah... that tracks. So you’re going to prove you’re the best by beating people while using an exceptionally unfair advantage?”

“Oooh, burn! She’s got you there!” Adrien called out.

Gamer growled, but, not wanting to be outdone, he left his mech to face the pair on the ground.

“Wait, for real?” Adrien said as Gamer marched towards them, hunched over. Adrien held out a hand against Gamer’s forehead, removing his oversized visor.

“Hey, why don’t you keep him there for a second, while I go… look for Ladybug… behind that tree,” Marinette said.

“No problem,” Adrien said.

While Marinette ran off, Gamer began windmilling his arms. Ladybug appeared moments later to de-evilise the akuma.

* * *

Gamer’s mech disintegrated, and he fell to the ground with a thud. Ladybug and Cat Noir celebrated their victory.

“Smackdown, Cat Noir!” Ladybug said, high-fiving her partner.

“Cat Noir Style! Booyah!” Cat Noir said. Ladybug’s eye twitched as Cat Noir pulled her father’s signature pose.

“Oh come on, Adrien, are you serious?” Ladybug sighed, slapping her forehead. “You came to my house  _ today _ , my dad showed you that move with that catchphrase  _ today _ , and you’re going around showing it off in public  _ today _ ! You’re making this secret identity thing  _ very _ difficult, kitty!”

Cat Noir opened his mouth as though about to retort, but thought better of it and simply gave a sheepish smile.

* * *

“System crash, Gamer!” Ladybug declared triumphantly. Gamer stood back up, and laughed.

“You've forgotten the rules. I saved my last level!” Before Ladybug could protest, he pressed a button on top of his visor, and his mech reformed in its final, most powerful form. “Respawn!”

“Aww, not the old spawn point glitch again,” Cat Noir moaned.

Ladybug looked between the pair. “Have either of you ever actually played a video game? You’re just saying meaningless buzzwords, whether or not they have anything to do with what’s going on! Respawning isn’t a glitch, Cat Noir. And levelling up in Mecha Strike is automatic, you can’t save it up. And you’re saying  _ I’ve _ forgotten the rules?”

“She’s right, Gamer,” Hawk Moth said into his villain’s mind. He had his tablet open to an online guide to the game. “It says here, plain as day, levelling up happens when you gain enough EXP, just as you did earlier. And even though I’m literally evil, I always play by the rules for some reason.”

Gamer’s new mech vanished just as easily as it had spawned. Ladybug walked up to him and snapped his visor.

* * *

It was the night of the competition, but Marinette simply felt like she couldn’t take part. She had explained to Alya that she intended to relinquish her place to Max.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for doubting you. I didn’t realise you were so into gaming,” Alya said. “And I definitely didn’t realised you kicked so much butt! How do you have enough time to get so good at games with everything else you do?”

Marinette just grinned. She was about to turn to talk to Max, when he came up to her.

“I would like to apologise for my actions. I should never have doubted you as a player, and I should have respected you as a player, and as my friend, in your victory. I wish you the best of luck in the tournament, Marinette. But just know that I’ll be coming back for my title next year,” Max said. He smiled, but his eyes were gleaming with determination.

“Game on, Max,” Marinette said, returning his look.

At Nino’s insistence, Marinette and Adrien prepared themselves to head out and play.

Marinette took a deep breath and turned to Adrien. “Ready, partner?”

“How could we lose when I have my lucky charm by my side?” Adrien said, beaming. Marinette looked down and blushed, realising that he had her charm bracelet tied around his wrist. Adrien followed her line of sight, then raised his hand. “Oh, and this charm bracelet she gave to me, of course.”

With the wink that followed that statement, Marinette died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> #LetAdrienEat2k16
> 
> Man, I love all of Marinette and Adrien's interactions in this episode, but just about every other character can get lost. Alya just assumes the worst of her friend (which, to be fair, the writing backs up, but if the writers woke up they'd know Marinette would have been interested in this anyway), Tikki keeps trying to give Marinette the worst advice (and having just finished writing the next chapter, that's not stopping any time soon...), and Max...!
> 
> In just about any other episode, Max is fine. He even has such a reasonable reaction to losing in the moment, which isn't true of almost anyone else! But he storms off and starts talking about himself being the "chosen one". And the sexism - because there's no other reason he would start explaining the rules to her.
> 
> But then we got our idiot children being so cute, and the charm bracelet! There was nothing to touch in the scene when she gave it to him, that was perfect, so I had to bring it back at the end.
> 
> So mixed feelings all in all. Next up is Reflekta!


	22. Reflekta

When Sabrina returned from the bathroom ahead of Juleka, Miss Bustier became concerned. As their teacher, she had a duty of care to her students, and she would never fail to notice someone’s absence.

“I’m terribly sorry, but we’ll have to postpone the photo while I go to check on Juleka,” she said.

“Miss Bustier, please, be reasonable, we have to keep moving along,” Mr Damocles pleaded.

“Would you like to be the one to explain to Juleka’s mother why she was not included in the class photo?” Miss Bustier countered. Mr Damocles had no response to this, so Miss Bustier left.

She opened the door the bathroom tentatively, not wanting to upset Juleka further if anything was wrong. “Juleka? Is everything- oh my goodness!”

The door to Juleka’s stall was being jammed by a chair pushed up against it.

“Never, in my wildest dreams, would I have imagined anyone would do something so dangerous, so cruel-!” Miss Bustier cried after returning to the class. Sabrina was wilting under the murderous glare of the normally so serene teacher. “What if there had been a fire!? Juleka could have been  _ killed _ !”

“I- I’m sorry, Miss Bustier, I- Chloé told me-”

“I don’t care what Chloé told you to do, you didn’t have to listen, but you chose to! Sabrina, you are excluded! You cannot be in this school while you are endangering the lives of others!” Miss Bustier shrieked.

Sabrina did not get to be in the class photo.

* * *

“Wait!” Marinette called out, reaching her hand out just as Vincent took the picture. He looked at the photo on screen and spat on the floor.

“This is terrible! You two, you moved and ruined the picture, what are you doing!?” he cried, pointing between Marinette and Chloé.

“What!? I was filling in the big empty spot and fixing your utterly ridiculous set up!  _ You’re welcome _ !” Chloé said, turning her face to one side and her nose up.

“I was trying to tell you that Juleka isn’t back yet,” Marinette said. “We can’t have her missing out.”

“Well I’m sorry, Miss Dupain-Cheng, but we simply must move on,” Mr Damocles said.

Victor laughed. “What, are you kidding me? We can’t keep this picture, it’s a travesty, I won’t allow it. We need to get the missing girl back, and you,” he said, pointing at Chloé, “need to get out of the picture. You continue to fail to listen, and I won’t have you ruining another shot for everyone else.”

Chloé huffed off. She did not get to be in the class photo.

* * *

It was Marinette’s duty as class representative, and as Juleka’s friend, to ensure she could be in the class photo, just as she deserved. As such, Marinette staked out Mr Damocles’ office to get the film.

“So, all the material stays in the Principal's office during lunch break!” Marinette said, watching Damocles and Vincent head out.

“I refuse to be a part of this!” Tikki said obstinately, folding her arms.

“Uh, okay, nobody asked you to, but if you’re that opposed to helping out an innocent girl who’s getting bullied when the adults in charge refuse to listen to reason, then suit yourself,” Marinette said.

“Well… when you put it like that…” Tikki said. She zoomed through the wall to the office, and returned moments later with the camera. Marinette pumped her fist, deleted the picture, and had Tikki return the camera before anyone would notice.

“Thank you. Maybe in future you could stop trying to guilt trip me over things like ‘being a teenager’ or ‘doing the right thing’,” Marinette said.

“You’re right. I’m sorry Marinette. I keep trying to mentor you, but maybe I’m the one who needs to be mentored.”

At that moment, they heard the telltale cackle of a new villain. Looking over the bannister, sure enough, Reflekta was transforming everyone in sight. Thanks to Tikki choosing to help, instead of wasting time trapped in Mr Damocles’ office, they were ready to leap into action and take Reflekta on alongside Cat Noir. With the pair of them able to fully work together, they took the villain down with ease.

* * *

When Cat Noir was transformed into Reflekta, although he lost his powers, he realised the real Reflekta no longer paid him any mind. Not only could he not stop her, she couldn’t take his ring either.

Suddenly, Ladybug was flipping around the courtyard, dodging Reflekta’s attack.

“Hey, Ladybug!” he cried out. Ladybug stopped moving and looked around at him long enough for Reflekta to strike her.

“Wha-! Cat Noir, look what you’ve done! Now neither of us can stop her!” Ladybug pouted. Cat Noir moved to her side, and Reflekta joined them on the ground, laughing in triumph.

“So what? Her evil plan is make everyone look like her, it doesn’t actually cause any problems. And now she can’t take our Miraculous, either,” Cat Noir said. Ladybug felt her ears to confirm that, indeed, her earrings were hidden by Reflekta's power.

“I  _ just  _ told you to take her Miraculous first,” Hawk Moth said to Reflekta, rubbing his temples, “and then you immediately started shooting! There’s just no point in you keeping your powers and keeping everyone transformed if I can’t get the Miraculous.”

He sighed, and with a snap of his fingers the akuma left Juleka’s mirror and Reflekta changed back to normal. Moments later, so did everyone else, leaving Ladybug free to purify the akuma.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As a teacher, some of the worst moments in this show come from the writers having no idea what schools are like. I'm not sure if it's just because things were different when they were at school, if things are really like this in France, or if they just don't have a clue, but this episode was a nightmare on that side of things.
> 
> Can you tell yet that I'm not the biggest fan of Tikki? XD Not in season 1 at least, she does seem to get better later. She's just full of such bad takes.
> 
> On the plus side, the way this episode resolved was great! Can't fault it at all, though maybe you've spotted something I haven't?
> 
> There's going to be a new chapter up every day this week! It's the Easter holidays so we're gonna get season 1 FINISHED! Come back tomorrow for The Puppeteer!


	23. The Puppeteer

It had become a semi-regular occurrence for Marinette to babysit Manon Chamack. To accommodate her, Marinette had stitched together some dolls of Ladybug, Cat Noir, and some of their defeated foes.

“I know! I know what the bad guys want! We want the Miraculous!” Manon declared gleefully, holding up the villains. Marinette wasn’t entirely sure how to explain to Manon why it was a problem for Hawk Moth to get the Miraculous, instead trusting that Manon knew that in reality the villains couldn’t be allowed to win. In make believe, however... “Then we'll win! Forever and ever! I'm gonna get your Miraculous, Ladybug and Cat Noir! You-you goody two-shoeses! You'll be super duper sorry!”

“You won't get our Miraculouses!” Marinette cried, running away with the pair of heroes.

“Oh yeah!?” Manon said back, chasing after Marinette such that the dolls could do battle.

Marinette was about to knock the dolls out of Manon’s hands and declare herself the victor, but then she remembered that she was playing an imaginary game with a five year old and that she wasn’t a sociopath.

“Oh no, you’ve defeated us, this is the end!” Marinette wailed, adding on a fake choking sound that earned a giggle from Manon.

“I'm back Manon!” Nadja called as she came up into Marinette’s room. “Have you been a good girl?”

“Mommy! I defeated Ladybug and Cat Noir!” Manon said, throwing herself at her mother.

“It’s true. Now Paris - and perhaps, the whole world - is doomed,” Marinette said dramatically, flopping down into her chair.

“Oh no! Well, it’s a good thing Ladybug and Cat Noir don’t  _ really _ have to fight you,” Nadja said, gathering Manon’s things to leave, and shooting Marinette a conspiratorial wink. “Clearly they wouldn’t stand a chance against you!”

“Yep. Luckily for them, I’m a good guy,” Manon said proudly, bounding down the stairs. She shouted back, “Bye Marinette!”

* * *

Having sensed Manon’s anger and frustration at being denied the toys she so badly wanted, Hawkmoth opened his window to the city.

“Ah, what could be more pure than an innocent child's emotions? Especially anger. I- oh, wait, and there’s another one, who wants ice cream before dinner- and there’s another- and-!”

Hawk Moth sighed aloud to himself. “Has it really come to this, Gabriel? Akumatising small children for such trivial things? You’re better than  _ this _ .”

He closed the viewing window and went back to his office.

* * *

“Puppeteer, I am Hawk Moth. From now on, you can control anyone!” Hawk Moth informed his latest target.

“Even Ladybug and Cat Noir?” Manon asked.

“Yes…as long as you possess their dolls.”

Manon frowned. “So… when you say anyone, you just mean people who there are dolls of.”

“I… suppose that’s right,” Hawk Moth said, flustered as he was outsmarted by a literal five year old. “But, in return, you have to get something for me!”

“Give you their Miraculouses! I know!”

Manon transformed and became the Puppeteer. Hawk Moth had told her that to win she needed dolls of Ladybug and Cat Noir. With her new ability to levitate, she quickly made her way to a toy shop. There she easily found the latest of the always popular Ladybug and Cat Noir toys.

“Ladybug, come to life! Cat Noir, come to life!” she said, waving her wand and zapping the figures.

Across Paris, coincidentally on the same train, Marinette and Adrien suddenly transformed into their hero forms and went to find Puppeteer.

* * *

“Lucky Charm!” Ladybug cried, hurling her yoyo into the air. Into her hands fell, “A power strip?”

She looked around the room at the assembled living puppets, plotting out her course of action. Evillustrator erased the display piece behind which she’d hid, and she leapt into action. One by one, she took out Cat Noir, along with the other villains. She had set up her situation perfectly to pull Lady Wifi’s hand towards Puppeteer to freeze her in place.

Puppeteer, however, had not wasted time, and brought the Ladybug doll to life.

* * *

“No! This cannot be happening!” Hawk Moth growled as his viewing window closed. He dropped his transformation. “Seriously. There were like, five different ways we should have won there. That’s it, Nooroo, make a note: I will never again akumatise a young child.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If Hawk Moth gave these same powers to someone who wasn't literally 5 and had any common sense he'd have won here easily. Like, Nathalie is right there and will support you if you just gave her these powers that are practically infallible. She could even buy the toys before using the powers if that's necessary.
> 
> The butterfly Miraculous is so absurdly powerful but Gabriel has no idea how to use it.
> 
> Next up will be Antibug!


	24. Antibug

Chloé was falling asleep in the middle of class. She had failed to get any sleep the night before, due to being mildly haunted. When she tried to explain this to Ms Mendeleiev, the class merely laughed at her.

“Quiet, everyone! Eyes on your papers!” Mendeleiev snapped.

Seemingly of its own volition, Chloé’s purse began to move and smack against her. “Oh, it’s happening again! Ohh- wahh!”

“Chloé, sit down!” the teacher barked, as Chloé fell to the floor. Chloé tried to escape her spectre, only to have pens flung at her from across the classroom. As she tried to avoid them, Mendeleiev again shouted, “Chloé, we don’t run in the classroom! Get back to your seat!”

Once the pens seemed to have halted, Chloé stared at Ms Mendeleiev. “Hold up. Are you seriously not concerned about seeing things fly around the room at me? Either as a teacher or a  _ scientist _ !?”

Mendeleiev shrugged. Moments later, with her sunglasses and hair getting pulled at, Chloé fled the room. Marinette and Adrien each thought about getting up to take action, but decided that as long as it was only bothering Chloé they weren’t really interested.

* * *

_ Ladybug and Cat Noir, or rather Chloé and Sabrina, were on the hunt for “Big Moustachio”. They burst into the hotel’s bar, mostly empty due to the time of day. There they found- _

_ “Jagged Stone!” Chloé gasped, finding the rock star giving Nadja an interview. _

_ “Er… yeah? Can I help you?” Jagged said. _

_ “Oh, I’m a  _ huge _ fan of yours,” Chloé gushed. _

_ “Thanks. Is there a convention on downstairs or something?” he asked. He gestured to their costumes, recognising that this clearly wasn’t Ladybug with dyed hair, and knowing that Cat Noir was not, in fact, a red-haired girl. _

_ “Uh… yeah! That’s it!” Chloé said quickly. That felt like a better explanation to latch onto than to have one of her favourite artists think she was playing make-believe like a child. She put on a coy smile. “Say, how do I know you’re the real Jagged Stone, and not just a guy in a costume?” _

_ Jagged laughed. “No way, girl. There’s only one musician who’s this jagged!” _

_ “Ooh, that’s a great sound bite, we can use that,” Nadja said, making a note. She glanced over at Chloé. “Thanks, kid!” _

_ “No problem! We’ll just… get out of your hair!” _

_ Chloé dragged Sabrina back out into the hallway. They both took a deep sigh of relief. _

“Right…” Ladybug said, scrutinising Chloé’s butler. “But… what about Chloé having a run-in, like we said?”

“Oh, well, she has run-ins with people all the time. She was annoyed with me later for hiding in the bar. Good luck finding out who it was this time!” the butler said, getting back to work.

* * *

Ladybug held up her fist to bump her partner’s on another job well done. Cat Noir, however, was not feeling so triumphant.

“Why didn't you listen to Chloé? She was only trying to help,” he said.

“First, because that girl put us in danger. And second, she completely lied to us earlier. I was not gonna listen to a liar,” Ladybug shot back.

“Oh, right, duh,” Cat Noir said, laughing and slapping his forehead. “I must have spaced out there. If she lied about one thing, she could easily lie about that. And everyone knows how much you hate lying. Sorry, my lady.”

“No problem, kitty. You figured it out in the end,” Ladybug said with a wink.

* * *

Having only just closed, Hawk Moth’s window overlooking Paris opened once again as he sensed Chloé’s rage at Ladybug.

“A betrayed Ladybug worshiper? Just what I need to swiftly-” he began, but then he yawned. He checked his watch and did a double-take. “Vanisher was active for  _ two days _ !? And I haven’t slept…”

He considered for a moment, then closed the window again. “Forget this, I’m going to bed.”

* * *

With no food to give Tikki, Marinette decided her best course of action was to monitor the situation. On the news, Nadja reported on Cat Noir fighting Antibug alone.

“Ugh, this is all my fault!” Marinette groaned.

“What!? What are you talking about, Marinette?” Tikki said.

Marinette blinked. “Oh, uh… well, you know. I guess I should have listened to Chloé, then this wouldn’t be happening…”

“No way, Marinette. You were totally right, she lied to you and was putting you all in danger! You were focused on the job at hand. You did the right thing. Chloé’s been akumatised because she’s a self-entitled brat!” Tikki said, sticking her tongue out in disgust.

“Thanks Tikki,” Marinette said, giving a small smile and looking away. “This feels kinda weird. I was expecting you to give me a lecture. Something like, ‘You don't have to do everything yourself. There's no harm in listening to others from time to time.’”

“Wow, is that what I sound like? That wouldn’t even make sense, you were  _ just _ giving an interview about how you and Cat Noir are a team…” Tikki said. She shook her head and sighed. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way Marinette. From now on, I’m trying to see things more from your point of view.”

“Thanks Tikki. Now let’s go get you fed and get back into the action!”

* * *

“What am I doing here?” Chloé said, having transformed back to her slightly less evil self. She looked around and saw Ladybug and Cat Noir fist-bumping. “Ladybug?”

Chloé stood and walked over, but the heroes just looked at her. “Well? Aren’t you going to apologise?”

“For what?” Ladybug asked. She and Cat Noir both cocked their eyebrows at Chloé.

“Ugh,  _ fine _ . I’m sorry for getting in your way before… and for not… realising that Sabrina was so upset. Happy now?”

“It’s a start,” Ladybug said, smiling. She placed a hand on Chloé’s shoulder. “We all make mistakes sometimes. The important thing is just to be honest about it, and apologise. If you can do that, then I’ll know that next time I can come to you for help and advice.”

Chloé beamed. The heroes ran to the edge of the building and leapt away. Chloé waved, calling, “You got it, Ladybug!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man am I sick of people giving Marinette/Ladybug crud over nothing! Cat Noir acting like she was in the wrong for not listening to Chloé, Tikki for giving Marinette an irrelevant lecture about needing to listen to others, and Chloé - well, Chloé sucks, so I don't expect better from her.
> 
> Writing this, I realised that the dub gives Chloé's butler the stereotypical French name and accent... which... what?? All of these people are French! What does that even mean??
> 
> We're closing in on the end of the season! Next up is Volpina!


	25. Volpina

Despite discovering that his father was keeping secrets hidden behind the painting of his mother, Adrien couldn’t bring himself to attempt to break in. Plagg, however, was another story.

“Plagg, no!” Adrien said in a harsh whisper, as Plagg phased through the door of the safe. Adrien pulled it open once Plagg had unlocked it.

“My, my, what have we got here? A book on Tibet, an old flyer from a hotel, a load of junk. Come on, where’s- oh. Oh!” Plagg gasped, grabbing hold of a brooch. “This… Adrien! This is the lost Miraculous of the peacock!”

“What!?” Adrien cried, struggling to keep his voice down.

“Yeah… and this book has something to do with it too, I’m sure of it,” Plagg said, pointing to an ancient-looking tome.

“But… why would my father have a Miraculous hidden away!?”

“I don’t know, but we have to take this to the Master of the Miraculous, let’s go!” Plagg said, tossing Adrien the brooch and the book.

Plagg lead Adrien to Master Fu, and together they became confident that Gabriel was indeed Hawk Moth. Once Ladybug had been informed, with the element of surprise, they were able to catch Gabriel in the act and apprehend him, saving everyone. All thanks to Plagg recognising the peacock Miraculous.

* * *

As Marinette walked into school, she kept hearing her classmates discussing someone called Lila. She walked up to Alya, hoping she would clue her in.

“Yeah, she just started at our school! She even gave me an exclusive interview for the Ladyblog, 'cause Ladybug saved her life once! Watch!” Alya said, excitedly playing Marinette a small clip.

Marinette cocked her head to one side and looked at Alya. “Uh… so what? Ladybug saves people in our class all the time, Nino even filmed her doing it once. I got you an interview with  _ actual Ladybug _ ! Ladybug saves  _ you _ every other week!”

“Oh. You’re right. Huh,” Alya said, her face blank. She shrugged. “Well, delete!”

* * *

Marinette tried to stay hidden as she chased Tikki around the library, while Lila pulled up a chair at Adrien’s table.

“Now we can get going on our history homework. It's so much more fun doing it together, don't you think?” she said brightly.

Adrien was nonplussed. “Uh… what are you talking about? It’s your first day here, you haven’t been assigned any homework yet, Lila. You pulled me in here to talk about Ladybug, remember?”

“Are you calling me a liar?” Lila said. Her face had gone stony. She stood up and slammed her palms down on the table. “Because if you are, I will  _ end you _ , Adrien Agreste!”

“You just… seemed a little confused,” Adrien said, keeping calm on the outside, at least.

“Okay then!” Lila said, sitting down. She buried her face in a history book, and Adrien took that opportunity to run.

* * *

After Tikki had brought the book to Marinette, Marinette ran to the far edge of the park.

“You've got your book. I can't lose Adrien. Time to transform!” she said, brimming with confidence.

“Okay, but wait! Just remember to stay calm, Marinette. You don’t want to sound crazy,” Tikki said, stowing the book in Marinette’s bag.

Once transformed, Ladybug casually strolled along the path on the other side of the park’s fence, back towards Adrien and Lila.

“...More powerful and more celebrated than Ladybug. Between you and me, Ladybug doesn’t even make the top ten,” Lila said as Ladybug approached the pair.

“Well that’s not a very nice thing to say,” Ladybug said, but she laughed it off. When the pair looked around at her, she blushed a little, smiling nervously. “Sorry, I was just walking past and I overheard. Oh, hi Adrien!”

“Ladybug! What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I just like to keep an eye on things, check in every now and then,” Ladybug said, choosing her words carefully such that she wasn’t technically lying. “Who’s your friend?”

Adrien’s head whipped around to Lila, who froze up for a moment. She quickly recovered, however, and laughed. “Oh Ladybug, don’t be silly! It’s me, Lila, your bff! Remember, after you saved me?”

Lila prayed that Ladybug would play along.

“Sorry, I can’t say I know you, and I make a point of remembering everyone I save, it helps me out in future. Have you perhaps gotten me confused with somebody else? Those were some odd remarks you were making before if you thought we were friends,” Ladybug said.

Lila’s cheeks became as red as her jacket. She refused to look up at either of them.

Adrien frowned and shook his head. He stood up and walked around the edge of the park, watched by Ladybug. He then came back up to her and they continued walking together, chatting pleasantly.

* * *

Cat Noir arrived at his room first through his bathroom window, quickly shutting it behind him. He considered dropping his transformation, to try to reason with her as Adrien. The more he thought about what he’d seen of her so far, however, the more he realised that she'd be unlikely to listen.

Instead, he camped out in the bathroom, waiting for Volpina to arrive, peeking out from behind the door. She flew into the room moments later and started calling out for him. He spotted the fox tail charm around her neck, the pendant she had claimed was a Miraculous.

“Wow, Adrien, how did you not realise that immediately?” he said to himself.

He burst through the door, propelled by his staff, screaming “Cataclysm!” as he went. Volpina spun around in shock, and Cat Noir grasped at her necklace, freeing the akuma.

“Wow. What did I miss?” Ladybug asked, landing in the room. Volpina’s transformation dropped as the akuma fluttered away from Cat Noir.

A minute later, the akuma had been purified and all had been returned to normal.

* * *

Ladybug arrived in back in Adrien’s room to ensure he’d been returned safely by the Miraculous Ladybug. “Adrien? Are you there? Can I come in?”

She headed towards the bathroom, but slammed the door closed as she heard the shower flowing. “This is Ladybug. Is everything okay?”

“Uh...yeah, yeah. I had to grab a shower after all this excitement,” Cat Noir called back, having put the shower on to ensure she wouldn’t come in.

“Uh… oh… yeah… sure. I'm sorry. I'll be off then, huh,” Ladybug said.

“Thank you!”

Both heroes leaned their heads against the door despondently, completely unaware of the other doing the same on the other side.

After a few moments, Cat Noir figured Ladybug must have left, so he opened the door. With a loud, “WAH!” Ladybug fell forward and their heads bonked.

“Ow, sorry, A- Cat Noir!? What’s going on, I just heard Adrien’s voice!”

Cat Noir panicked. “Uh… yeah, he’s back there, right Adrien?” He turned his head to the side, covered his mouth, and attempted to throw his voice. “Yep! Sure am! In the shower!”

“Oh my gosh, you’re such an idiot,” Ladybug said, grabbing Cat Noir and kissing him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lila told me they're making MewFOUR in the new Pokémon games. It's true. Her dad works at Nintendo.
> 
> Here we have a rare instance of Marinette actually making a mistake! Not that she was wrong to be angered by Lila's lies, but how she handled it... both isn't a great look for Ladybug, and was naturally going to make Lila an easy target for Hawk Moth. Girl needs to chill out. We also get a rare instance of someone apologising - apologising when they actually did make a mistake no less! And then it gets thrown in Ladybug's face because Lila sucks. Maybe that's why nobody apologises in future...
> 
> But Plagg... my dude... what are you even doing. In season 2 he weeps over Nooroo's enslavement, but he doesn't care one bit about the Peacock Kwami??
> 
> We're at the end of season 1! All that's left now is Origins :D


	26. Ladybug and Cat Noir: Origins Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So did you ever notice how neither kwami actually tells the kids they need secret identities? The most we see is Tikki trying to stop Marinette from calling her parents. I get it, the show's premise is built around it, but they do not do the work of properly establishing why it's in place.
> 
> This episode just does such a weird job of trying to set up the show though, which really shouldn't be the case seeing as they knew what was going on with the rest of the season. But I know, I know, I shouldn't ask for consistency...
> 
> Stay tuned for Stoneheart, and the end of season 1! I WILL catch up eventually!

It was the first day of the new school year. As predicted, Chloé Bourgeois was indeed in the same class as-

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” the spoiled brat declared, slamming her hand down on Marinette’s desk.

“Ugh. Here we go again,” Marinette sighed.

“That's my seat!” Chloé said.

“But Chloé, this has always been my seat,” Marinette shot back.

“Not anymore! New school, new year, new seats!” said Sabrina, dropping into the seat on the other side of Marinette.

“Sabrina… we’re not at a new school. How can you say this isn’t my seat ‘anymore’ if you think we’re at a new school?” Marinette asked, utterly baffled by Sabrina’s remark. Sabrina seemed confused by Marinette’s obvious logic.

“Well, she’s got me there,” Sabrina said. She shrugged and slipped out of the seat, moving down to the front row.

Chloé, however, didn’t retreat. She scowled and said, “It doesn’t matter that this  _ used _ to be your seat, it’s  _ my _ seat now, so go on, move!”

Marinette was on the verge of surrendering and moving away, when someone else spoke up.

“Chloé, you know very well that I won’t tolerate bullying in my classroom,” Miss Bustier said. She was stood at the front of the room, and easily overheard everything Chloé was saying. “As it’s our first day back, I’ll let you off with a warning this time only. Alya, would you mind moving to sit next to Marinette?”

Chloé growled, but moved to sit besides Sabrina, while Alya joined Marinette.

* * *

Adrien was panting as he ran desperately. He had to beat Nathalie there if he wanted the chance to actually go to school.

The car pulled up just as he made it to the school gates.

“Adrien, please reconsider! You know what your father wants!” Nathalie called up to him, climbing out of the car.

“But this is what  _ I _ wanna do!” Adrien said. He turned to enter the building, but heard a groan of pain. He turned and saw an elderly man on the ground, desperately reaching for his cane.

Without missing a beat, Adrien dashed over and helped the man up, handing him his cane.

“Thank you, young man,” he said, hobbling away.

Adrien turned back to find that the Gorilla had wrapped his arms around Nathalie and lifted her out of the way. Meeting Adrien’s eyes, he nodded towards the school. With a word of thanks and a beam on his face, Adrien dashed inside.

* * *

As the bell rang for the end of class, Miss Bustier instructed her students on where they should be headed next. Over the top, however, came a loud cry of “Kim!”

“Ivan, what is going on?” Miss Bustier asked.

Ivan had his fist raised, directed at Kim. “It's Kim! I'm so gonna get-”

“Ivan, Kim, sit down. Everyone else, out you go,” Miss Bustier said.

Once the rest of the class had left, Miss Bustier spoke with her two students about the problem. Together, they reached an understanding. Kim apologised for teasing Ivan, and Ivan apologised for threatening him in return. No more was said on the matter.

* * *

Adrien, in his brand new superhero form, was practising with his heightened sense of balance and acrobatics. He stepped across his extended staff daintily, and said, “I’m starting to get the hang of this.”

Then a girl in similar red magical spandex came hurtling and screaming through the air. She collided with him and they became entangled in her wire.

“Well, hey there. Nice of you to drop in,” he said. He wasn’t quite sure where either the confidence or the pun had come from, but they felt right for his new superhero persona.

“Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't do it on purpose,” Marinette said, giving a nervous grin back.

“I bet you're the partner my kwami told me about,” Adrien said once he’d been extricated. “I’m Adrien And you?”

“I’m Ma- err, Ma- mm…” Marinette began, tugging on her yoyo. She pulled it loose, and it bonked Adrien on the head. “Marinette. Sorry. Wait, shoot! Shouldn’t we have superhero names? To keep our identities a secret?”

“Oh, you’re right. Well, you can call me… Cat Noir. Yeah, Cat Noir! And we’re a team, so it shouldn’t matter that we know each other’s names, right?” said the newly christened Cat Noir.

“I guess not. Besides, it’s not like we know each other outside of this,” Marinette said. They were distracted as the ground beneath them suddenly rumbled, and they refocused on their task at hand.

When Adrien’s name was called on the register at school the next day, and the blonde boy with whom she’d just argued about chewing gum stood up, Marinette screamed.

* * *

“KIM!” Stoneheart bellowed, standing on top of the football stadium at the end of the PE lesson. Some screamed, but everyone ran. “So, who's wuss now?”

Stoneheart chased Kim down, until someone else dropped in the way.

“Hey, it's not very nice to pick on people who are smaller than you,” the figure said. He was a blond boy wearing an orange and white mask and costume, and wielding what appeared to be a flute.

“I guess you're talking about yourself,” Stoneheart said, proceeding to attack the fox-themed hero, but he was too agile and he dodged out of the way. As they fought, the fox boy was joined by a girl with pigtails dressed like a bee.

“Hold on, what even is this!?” Hawk Moth cried as he monitored the situation from his lair. “What is that!? It was supposed to be the ladybug and the cat! Not the fox! If they don’t send out those two Miraculous to fight me… how am I supposed to steal them?”

Hawk Moth slumped as the impossibility of his task weighed down upon him. “And if I can’t steal them… then… Emilie…”

He closed his viewing window overlooking the city, and hung his head.

“If I can't steal them, there's no point in carrying on this charade. And I had a whole thing… I’ve got this purple suit and everything…”

* * *

“Sorry it took so long, Cat Noir,” Ladybug said, dashing to her partner’s side.

“It's cool, Wonderbug. Now, let's kick his rocky behind!” he said, ready to race back into action. Ladybug held him back by grabbing his tail.

“Wait! Haven't you noticed? He gets bigger and stronger with every attack. We have to do something different,” Ladybug said.

“Different how?”

“Uhh… oh, I know!” Ladybug said, snapping her fingers. “Well, I don’t know, but my kwami told me there’s an emergency user’s guide in my yoyo…”

“Well while you check that, I’ll try using my power! Cataclysm!”

Cat Noir called on his power, and tested it on the goal post before Ladybug could stop him.

“‘Remember that you can only use your special power once, after which you’ll start a five minute timer before your transformation wears off,’” Ladybug read flatly, as, sure enough, Cat Noir’s ring beeped.

“Oops,” he chuckled.

“Oh! Right! Mustn’t forget, after we beat him I have to use my yoyo to capture the akuma! I almost forgot that part!” Ladybug said.

Despite the disadvantage of not having Cataclysm, the two heroes were able to stop Stoneheart, saving Ivan and freeing the dark butterfly.

“No more evil-doing for you, little akuma…”

* * *

“Did you capture the akuma?” Tikki asked Marinette at the end of the breaking news bulletin.

“What's capturing the akuma got to do with the other stone beings?” Marinette asked.

“An akuma can multiply, that's why it must be captured. If Ivan's emotions become negative again, then the akuma will turn him back into Stoneheart! He'll control all the stone beings and bring them to life to serve as his army!”

Marinette frowned. “That’s weird. You said these akumatised people could get turned into all sorts. What if Ivan had been turned into, I don’t know… a giant baby!? Or… some sort of pigeon man who controlled an army of pigeons? What, would half of Paris get turned into identical pigeon men, who  _ also _ could control the army of pigeons… but then the pigeons would get all confused and not know who to listen to, and there’d be a pigeon man civil war!”

Tikki opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again. After a moment, she managed to say, “Marinette, I honestly don’t know what to say to that. I think we can just assume our foe will never create monsters that are… as bizarre as that. But don’t worry. It was your first time. You're going to go back and capture Stoneheart's akuma, and do it successfully!”

Marinette took a deep breath. “So… you’re telling me it’s not too late? That we can save all those people?”

“Absolutely! Although we might need Cat Noir’s help to break the stone open…” Tikki said.

“Okay. I’m ready, let’s do this,” Marinette said, standing up. “How do I contact Cat Noir?”

“You have phones built into your weapons. Your yoyo can call his staff!” Tikki said brightly.

“But… what if he’s not transformed?” Marinette asked, tilting her head.

Tikki’s eyes widened so much so quickly it made Marinette laugh. “Wow. Yeah, okay, you two  _ obviously  _ need to know each other’s identities. We’ll just have to make a big scene to get his attention and sort that out afterwards.

Marinette transformed and took off into the city, her confidence built up by Tikki, Alya, and Cat Noir. She found the nearest stone figure and landed on top of them, calling out for Cat Noir. He joined her ten minutes later, and together they freed the trapped citizens and captured all of the akumas.

Then they found a place to hide, dropped their transformations and exchanged contact details. They went to a coffee shop and had an adorable date together and never had to worry about identity shenanigans.


	27. Stoneheart: Origins Part 2

“Paris is relying on our new guardian angels, Ladybug and Cat Noir, to save us all. Our lives depend on them,” Nadja reported, stabbing Marinette directly in the heart.

Tom could see how badly it was affecting Marinette. He put a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she looked up at him. “Listen, I know how upsetting and scary this is, but don't worry, sweetie; you and Cat Noir will figure this out.”

Marinette’s eye twitched and she tripped over her own feet, knocking everything on the counter flying. “Wh-what are you talking about, dad?” she asked, lifting the fruit bowl off of her head.

“Oh!” Tom gasped, covering his mouth. “Sorry, Marinette, was it supposed to be a secret?”

“Oh, honey, no! It was so obvious,” Sabine said, with a sympathetic smile. “But we saw what you did at the stadium, we saw how amazing you were! We know you can do this, and we’ll support you however we can.”

“So - so everyone knew it was me!?” Marinette squeaked. Tom and Sabine caught each others eyes.

“No, no, I’m sure it wasn’t obvious to  _ everyone _ …” Tom said. He refused to look at Marinette.

“But we’re your parents,” Sabine added, placing her hand on Marinette’s, “and what kind of parents wouldn’t recognise their own child through an eye mask?”

Across the city, Hawk Moth stood in wait in his lair for his chance to come again.

“Come on, Ivan, get mad already! I need you to hurry up so I can defeat Ladybug and Cat Noir! I hate them both so much!” he roared.

* * *

As they walked into school, Alya was excited to show Marinette the new blog she’d set up.

“Ladyblog, bringing you all the latest news about the coolest superhero, Ladybug! How awesome is that?! Check out the number of views since I posted the video!”

“Well… that’s great and all, but what about Cat Noir?” Marinette asked.

“What about him?” Alya asked back. Marinette struggled to not shout.

“What about him!? He’s a hero too! He’s just as important as Ladybug is, they worked together as a team of equal partners, she couldn’t have done it without him!” she said fiercely. She went a little red in the face, and realised that she hadn’t taken a breath.

With a twinkle in her eye, Alya leaned in to Marinette. “Do you have a little crush on Cat Noir, Marinette?”

“No!” Marinette said, far too quickly. She looked away from Alya, grateful that her cheeks were already red. “It just seems unfair to make your blog all about Ladybug…”

Alya laughed. “Relax, girl. I know, Cat Noir was great too. And I’m sure someone else will make a blog about him. But to me it feels like women don’t get enough credit for things like heroism, and I want to take the chance to praise that. We have our very own superheroine in Paris, and she’s  _ awesome _ !”

Alya’s praise just made Marinette feel worse in the face of her failure. “But why do you trust Ladybug so much? All these stone beings…”

“She's gonna handle them,” Alya said without missing a beat.

“But what if she's not really cut out to be a superhero even though everyone thinks she is?” Marinette asked, hoping she wasn’t being too obvious.

“What are you talking about, girl? Oh, wait. I know what this is about,” Alya said, leaning right into Marinette’s face. Marinette was certain she blown her cover, until Alya spoke again. “You're scared, but don't be! I've seen it with my own two eyes, girl! Ladybug is a true superheroine! She's going to protect us all! I believe in her.”

Alya walked away, leaving a smile on Marinette’s face. Marinette ran off to the bathroom and, once she was alone, pulled out the earrings and put them back on. Tikki appeared before her eyes again.

“Marinette! I knew you’d come around!” Tikki said.

“Yeah… everyone has so much faith in me… you, Cat Noir, Alya… so even if I can’t see it yet, I know there must be something there, and I’m gonna give it all I’ve got!” Marinette cried. She pumped her fist into the air. Tikki clapped.

* * *

While Ivan stormed off, Alya stormed right up to Chloé. “How could you say that to Ivan? You're the real Stoneheart!”

“Oh, so I'm the one who broke Sabrina's dad's arm, am I? Just because your footage of those lame superheroes was shown on TV, doesn't mean you have to get so high and mighty!” Chloé said. She blew a chewing gum bubble big enough to almost touch Alya, and popped it.

“You little-!” Alya said, seething with rage to the point that she wasn’t sure what to say next.

“Look out, she's angry! She's going to split her underwear and turn into a huge muscly monster!” Chloé said, pretending to act scared. Alya growled but walked away.

“Hey, Chloé,” Adrien said. He was approaching the group looking deeply unhappy.

“Adrikins! You came!” Chloé squealed, attempting to wrap her arms around Adrien, but he held her back. At Chloé’s call, other students looked over curiously.

“Yeah, and you know, I worked really hard to come here today, going against my father’s wishes, all for the chance to spend time with people my own age and try to make friends. And I thought that the only friend I’ve had up ‘til this point would have been a great person to show me around and help me meet new people, but I just saw how you spoke to that girl. That is not the kind of person I want to be friends with.”

Chloé was stunned speechless. She made no attempt to stop Adrien as he walked away. As he did so, the crowd of students cheered for him.

* * *

Marinette and Alya walked into the classroom to find Adrien kneeling by their seats, poking at gum.

“Hey! What are you doing!?” Marinette snapped at him.

Adrien quickly stood back up, but failed to explain himself, refusing to make Chloé take the fall. He was surprised when she and Sabrina, however, didn’t seem to mind anyone knowing they were involved, as they laughed.

“Okay. I get it. Good job, you three. Very funny,” Marinette spat.

“No, no, I was just trying to take this off!” Adrien said desperately.

“Oh, really?” Marinette asked back waspishly.

“He’s telling the truth,” Alix said. Everyone looked round at her. “What? I don’t got a horse in this race. I don’t see why the new kid should take the fall for Chloé because he’s too nice to rat her out. And I don’t care what Chloé thinks of me.” As Chloé scowled at her, Alix stuck her tongue out back.

“Oh. Well... sorry about that… I shouldn’t be so quick to judge,” Marinette said with a nervous giggle, offering him a hand.

“A- Adrien,” he said, accepting her handshake.

Adrien turned to go and sit down, but was surprised to find Alya had taken his seat next to Nino.

“Oh, sorry Adrien, did Chloé say this was your seat? I don’t know what to tell you, because I definitely sit here, right Nino?” Alya said, turning to give Nino a wink.

“Totally! But there’s a space for you there, right next to Marinette!” Nino called.

Adrien sat down next to Marinette. They met each other’s eyes, then both looked away blushing.

* * *

“Oh no, I'm gonna be late!” Mylène said, dashing out of the bathroom, running headlong into Ivan. “Ahh! Ivan, you scared me.”

“I made this for you,” Ivan declared awkwardly. He pressed play on his phone, blaring out unbearably loud music and screaming over it. Mylène quickly covered her ears.

“Ivan! IVAN!” she yelled, until Ivan hit pause. She took her fingers out of her ears. “Thank you. That was so loud, it hurt! And I couldn’t hear what you were saying.

“Oh, sorry Mylène… here, let me try it like this…” Ivan said. He turned down the volume, and moved to the other side of the locker room before giving his song another go.

“Oh! Ivan!” Mylène gasped when he had finished. She ran up to Ivan, grabbed his face, and kissed him.

* * *

Stoneheart burst into the classroom and went straight for Mylène.

“Let go of me, Ivan!” she cried as he lifted her up.

“I'm not Ivan anymore. I'm Stoneheart!” Stoneheart said.

“Why are you doing this?”

“So you and I can be together forever!”

From under the desk, Stoneheart heard Chloé wailing into her phone, “Daddy, the monster is back!”

“This is gonna save everyone a lot of time and trouble,” Stoneheart said.

He jumped on Chloé.

* * *

Mayor Bourgeois had half of the police force of Paris out surrounding the Eiffel Tower. Stoneheart was perched halfway up, still with Mylène and Chloé gripped in his fists.

“I demand my daughter's safe return!” Andre called through a megaphone.

“And the other hostage too, Mr Mayor,” Roger reminded him. Andre shrugged.

“Daddy!” Chloé screamed, only irritating Stoneheart.

“You know what? You're welcome to her!” Stoneheart roared, pelting Chloé down to the ground.

As Chloé flew through the air, she put her hands together and prayed. “Help! I promise I'll be nice to everyone, say please and thank you all-!”

Skidding to a stop, Ladybug caught Chloé in her arms.

“Well. I guess I promised,” Chloé said

The following day, Chloé apologised to her class for all her past misdeeds. From that day forwards, everyone who met her knew Chloé to be the nicest girl in Paris.

* * *

“We're clear to attack!” Roger declared, directing his officers to take aim on Stoneheart.

“Wait! No, don't attack them! You know it'll only make it worse!” Ladybug cried desperately.

“I have a new plan, unlike you! Move aside and let the pros do their thing. You've already failed once!” Roger said.

Ladybug looked up at Roger in disbelief. “Uh, so have  _ you _ . Using these exact same weapons before, so you don’t have a new plan at all!”

“Plus, we didn’t fail! We did stop Stoneheart, this is a new attack!” Cat Noir added.

“And he still has a hostage up there!” both heroes said together.

“Well, they’ve got me there,” Roger said, stepping down to let the superheroes do their thing.

* * *

Ladybug was set to de-evilise the akuma, but Ivan and Mylène’s screams as they fell stopped her. Luckily, equipped with her Lucky Charm parachute, she knew what to do.

“Cat Noir, take care of Ivan!” she called, throwing herself from the tower after Mylène.

Cat Noir called on his Cataclysm, slamming his palm against the side of the Eiffel Tower. He felt confident that doing so would release a beam that would fall out exactly far enough for him to grab hold of Ivan and hang on until they could get down safely.

Instead, however, the entire tower crumbled and both boys crashed onto the ground.

“I… might need more practise with that,” Cat Noir groaned, before passing out.

* * *

It was raining after school. Marinette stood in the entrance way, dreading having to head home in the downpour, even just the short distance. Adrien approached her, umbrella in hand, and tried to greet her, but she turned away.

“I just wanted you to know that I was only trying to take the chewing gum off your seat. I swear. I've never been to school before. I've never had friends. It's all sort of... new to me.”

Adrien held out the umbrella to Marinette, smiling. Marinette looked at Adrien, taking in the truth of the person she’d disregarded so easily. She took the umbrella, not looking away. It closed on her, and they both laughed.

“See you tomorrow,” Adrien said, turning to walk through the rain to his car.

“WAIT!” a voice cried out desperately. Marinette and Adrien turned to see the old man they’d both helped a few days earlier running towards them. He stopped at the foot of the stairs, panting. Despite holding an umbrella above his head, his face was still wet.

“I- I can’t go through with it! The secrets! That was too beautiful! Adrien helped Marinette feel more confident in herself, Marinette inspired all of Paris, including Adrien, which helped him give that speech! It’s just too perfect, I can’t let you keep on going without you both knowing that you’re Ladybug and Cat Noir!”

The pair gasped, and their attention shifted from the old man onto each other. Now that he had pointed it out, they didn’t know how they could possibly have missed it.

They smiled. “Hey.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've always been a little lukewarm on Ladynoir, and doubly so on Marichat, but watching these episodes I can totally see it. Yes, the umbrella scene is beautiful and wonderful and it sets up the Adrienette aspect so well, but Marinette becomes the person we see through the rest of the fic thanks to Alya, Tikki, and Cat Noir helping her build her confidence. She gives the speech that inspires Paris and makes Adrien fall for her moments after being ready to give up again, but he restores her faith in herself.
> 
> I JUST LOVE THESE DORKS OKAY.
> 
> That's the end of season 1! Thank you all so much for the support so far and the engaging comments.Next week sees the start of season 2, with the Collector!


	28. The Collector

Marinette watched as Master Fu flicked through the pages of the supposed spellbook she’d brought to him from Adrien. Their kwamis were flying around the room, playing together.

“I've always believed that whoever possessed this spellbook must also have the Peacock and the Butterfly Miraculous,” Fu said.

“Wait a sec, you mean whoever owned the spellbook could be Hawk Moth!?” Marinette cried out in disbelief.

“How did you discover this book, Marinette?” Fu asked, watching Marinette shrewdly.

Marinette hedged her way through trying to cover for Adrien until she felt Tikki’s tiny hand on her shoulder.

“Marinette, it’s okay. You can trust Master Fu,” she said. Marinette smiled down at Tikki, but turned back to Fu looking Grim.

“We took it from Adrien Agreste.”

“Oh, well no worries there then,” Fu said, chortling and shaking his head. “I know for a fact that Adrien Agreste is not Hawk Moth, don’t worry about that. But then we must find out how he got hold of this book…”

“I’m on it!” Marinette said. She stood up and held her fists up confidently, before dashing from the room.

* * *

The crashing coming from Gabriel’s office prompted Adrien and the Gorilla to rush over to see what was going on. Nathalie was waiting outside, and held up a hand to stop them both.

“Your father is very busy,” she said simply. The crashing continued.

“I don’t care about that, he could be in danger!” Adrien cried, looking desperately to the Gorilla.

The Gorilla nodded at Adrien and lifted Nathalie out of the way. Adrien burst through the door in time to see his father disappearing through a hole in the floor. He could not make himself speak until the floor had sealed itself again.

“Nathalie, what even is that!?” Adrien asked. The Gorilla had brought her into the room.

Through gritted teeth, she said to him, “Adrien, just go to your room, I’m sure your father will explain himself later.”

Adrien, instead, ran out of the house, transformed, and found Ladybug. When she shared her theory that Gabriel might be Hawk Moth, Cat Noir confirmed what he had just seen. After defeating the Collector, they brought Gabriel into custody, and saved the world.

* * *

Adrien opened his window, ready to transform and head out.

“My father's angry because of me; he won't forgive me until I find that book,” Adrien said.

“May I remind you that you're actually grounded?” Plagg said, using the most sanctimonious voice he could manage.

Adrien stared at him. As one, they burst out laughing.

“Man, could you imagine if I was actually  _ like that _ ?” Plagg said, wiping away tears.

“You had me going there for a moment, I’ve gotta say,” Adrien laughed.

“Ha! Anyway, wanna go rob a bank?”

“ _ Plagg _ !”

* * *

Ladybug was relieved when Cat Noir finally showed up to meet with her.

“Cat Noir, did you get my messages?”

"Yeah, but it was pretty much a coincidence that I happened to transform. We really need a way to contact each other out of costume,” Cat Noir said, shrugging. “Still, I can't wait to know more, my Lady-tective. So, who's the suspect?”

“Gabriel Agreste,” Ladybug said. Cat Noir gasped and almost fell from the roof upon hearing his own father’s name. “You know, the fashion designer?”

“You got… proof?” Cat Noir asked. He was hoping this was just an odd joke.

“Ahh, umm, I can't tell you…” Ladybug said.

“So, I'm supposed to just...accept that?” he asked incredulously.

“Well… that’s kind of a weird reaction, do you not trust me?” she shot back, frowning. “Though now that I think about it, actually, why should you just accept it? There’s no reason you shouldn’t know what’s going on. I’ve come across a book that was under his possession that’s actually a lost spellbook connected to the Miraculous!”

Cat Noir gaped. There was a lot to process in that, and it tallied up with his father’s reaction to the book being lost. One part stood out above all the rest, however. “Do you have the book now?”

“It’s being kept somewhere safe, I’ll explain more later. For right now, though, we must apprehend him, and get concrete evidence!” Ladybug said. She moved to the edge of the roof, then looked back at her partner.

“I’m with you, my Lady,” he said, dashing to the edge of the roof with her to leap forth.

* * *

For a brief respite in their battle against the Collector, Ladybug and Cat Noir leapt up to the balcony, hiding behind the barrier.

Cat Noir was elated. “So that must mean… Gabriel Agreste can't possibly be Hawk Moth, since he's been akumatized!”

“Are you kidding me?” Ladybug said. “There’s nothing that says he can’t akumatise himself. The fact that he’s this upset over a book he can’t even read? That doesn’t add up. Either he knows what the book is really about  _ because he’s Hawk Moth _ , or he can’t really be this upset over losing it, so it’s a fake akumatisation  _ because he’s Hawk Moth _ !”

“I… it sounds like that book was what inspires his designs,” Cat Noir said, somewhat lamely, dodging around how true he knew that to be.

“Yeah, it inspires his designs all right,” Ladybug said, then continuing to shout over the bannister, “for his tacky purple suit and that ridiculous head mask!”

“Excuse me!? That suit is the pinnacle of elegant simplicity mixed with modern theming, and the full head mask is sleek and stylish!” the Collector yelled. Ladybug and Cat Noir looked over the banister, smirking. “Er… I mean… that- that’s just my personal opinion… as a fashion designer...”

“You’re going down, Hawk Moth!” Ladybug cried as the heroes leapt back into action.

* * *

“So, since Gabriel Agreste was akumatized, he can't possibly be Hawk Moth, right?” Marinette said, explaining her findings to Master Fu as the knelt together in his massage parlour.

“That’s definitely not how that works… but how did you find out that Gabriel Agreste was the owner of the spellbook?” Fu asked.

Marinette explained how she had traced the book back from Adrien to Gabriel, and that she wasn’t sure before that she could trust Fu. He pointed out Marinette’s super obvious feelings for Adrien. At first, Marinette denied it, but then she quickly moved on to gushing about Adrien.

“You know, Marinette, if we want to be stronger than Hawk Moth, we have to trust each other,” Fu said.

“Right! Exactly! And to that end… Tikki, spots on!”

Fu shielded his eyes from the pink light as Marinette unexpectedly transformed. When he looked again, she was up and walking to his front door. She opened it, and in walked Cat Noir.

“It really doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for me to be here by myself learning about all this. Cat Noir and I are a team, I couldn’t do what I do without him, so he needs to be kept in the loop too,” Ladybug said, placing a hand on Cat Noir’s shoulder. The two heroes beamed at each other.

Fu saw in both of their eyes what they still didn’t fully understand. He covered his mouth with his hand, and softly spoke to Wayzz behind him. “Watch this, it’s going to be great.”

“You’re right,” he said to the heroes, who turned back to face him. “We must all be able to trust each other. And I think by now, you have both proven how trustworthy you are. I think it is time you revealed your identities to one another.”

Both of them were shocked, but looked at each other with eyes full of wonder.

“On the count of three?” Cat Noir suggested.

“One,” Ladybug said.

“Two!”

“Three! Spots off!” Ladybug cried, as Cat Noir called, “Three! Claws in!”

Marinette and Adrien both screamed.

* * *

Standing in the Agreste mansion foyer, Marinette explained a not quite accurate account to Gabriel of why it was she had ended up with the book. The main point he took from her rambling was that she was clearly crazy about his son.

“I see. So, you're one of his admirers?” Gabriel asked.

“Admirers? Yeah. That's the word,” Marinette said. She handed Nathalie the book.

“And… aren’t you the girl who won my design competition? It’s… Marinette Dupain-Cheng, correct?” he asked. Marinette’s jaw dropped, star struck that her idol had remembered her. She nodded. Gabriel nodded to Nathalie, who pulled something up on her tablet and handed it to Gabriel. “And as I understand it, you won a city wide video game competition, you are the student representative for your class, you assist your parents in running the finest bakery in Paris, and your name appears on the menu of Le Grand Paris, as you inspired your uncle in his dish that won the World’s Greatest Chef competition. Is that all correct?”

Marinette nodded again, utterly floored by how much Gabriel knew about her. He grinned. “I make a point of paying attention to exceptional people in my son’s life. People like you are the kind of people with whom I would like him to spend time. I’ll be in touch, Miss Dupain-Cheng.”

Marinette’s jaw remained wide open as she left. When the door had closed, Nathalie raised an eyebrow at Gabriel.

“What? I can’t risk him dating  _ Chloé _ !”

* * *

Nathalie watched as Gabriel swiped through images from the spellbook on his computer.

“So then, if you already had a copy of the book, why'd you go through all that trouble?” she asked.

“I did what had to do to keep my secret,” Gabriel said, moving towards his wife’s portrait. Before he could press the buttons to activate his elevator, however, Nathalie spoke again.

“To- to keep your secret? But you could have just defeated them! You could wipe pages from your book blank, you could easily have captured Ladybug and Cat Noir and actually won!”

Gabriel’s eyes widened. “No, no, you see- I wasn’t trying to actually defeat them. I just had to keep my identity safe!”

“You’d have kept it even safer if you just  _ won _ .”

Gabriel’s eye twitched. Nathalie walked up to him and slapped him.

“And  _ that _ was for putting me in your book. Sir,” she said, turning and walking out of his office.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gabriel's duuumb. And Fu too - screw this nonsense of not letting the heroes be equals, excluding Adrien... that was obviously always going to go wrong.
> 
> Season 2 begins though! Next up will be Despair Bear!


	29. Despair Bear

Tom was at the front of the classroom, eagerly demonstrating all of the steps and proper techniques for making macarons. Alya and Marinette giggled about how much both they and he were enjoying it. Chloé, however, was less impressed.

“Urgh! Do they seriously think I'm going to get my hands dirty, cooking like some maid?” she snapped, turning to Sabrina.

“If by ‘they’ you mean your teacher and special guest in the classroom, then yes, Chloé, they do,” Miss Bustier said. She was standing a little off to the side, but still monitoring the classroom, seeing as Tom was not an actual teacher. “Now, please stop interrupting or I’ll have to send you to the principal’s office.”

Chloé grumbled to herself, but fell quiet after that. When Tom then showed the class the results of his work so far, Chloé attempted to sneak off to one side to make a phone call. Marinette glowered over at her, thinking she was the only one who noticed. Luckily, their teacher was actually paying attention to her students.

“Chloé! You are continuing to be disrespectful to our guest, and to our class! You will apologise to Mr Dupain, and then you will go to the principal’s office!” Miss Bustier said. Everyone turned to look at Chloé. She blushed, but then rolled her eyes.

“Whatever. I’m  _ sorry _ ,” Chloé said, sauntering out of the room.

“I’m terribly sorry, Mr Dupain,” Miss Bustier said, smiling brightly again once the classroom door was closed. “Please, continue.”

“Um… right. Where were we? Ah, yes, emulsion.”

* * *

“So, some smart aleck had the bright idea of calling the fire department,” Mr Damocles announced, to the shock of most of the students gathered before him. “Somebody amongst us thought it would be funny to waste the fire captain's valuable time.”

“Yeah, and uh… I really wish we could have done this more discreetly, but…” the fire captain sighed. He turned to address the students, as the principal had requested. “We can and do trace calls, so we know exactly who the perpetrator was. Calling in a fake fire is a serious offence, so Chloé Bourgeois, we’ll be contacting your parents and seeing you in court.”

All eyes turned to Chloé. Her jaw dropped as the firefighter turned and left.

* * *

“Since no one is owning up, the whole school will be punished,” Mr Damocles declared, to the dismay of all the student.

“What?! I'm not so sure my father will react kindly to me being punished without any proof!” Chloé said, waving her phone up at the principal.

“Oh, no! Please, don't disrupt the busy mayor,” Damocles said. He cleared his throat. “The whole school is punished... except for Miss Bourgeois.”

This caused a great deal of grumbling. The students began to file out of the room, until a booming voice called out, “STRIKE!” The voice belonged to Ivan. Everyone looked at him. Once they were, Mylène, at his side, also yelled, “YEAH, STRIKE!”

Other students around the courtyard voiced their agreement. As one, they marched past their helpless principal and out of the building, where they began to march. They were soon joined by the teachers, and after a while a news crew arrived.

The Mayor was ultimately called down to the school to resolve the situation, but not before being embarrassed on live TV over the fact that his daughter abusing his position of power had caused the situation. He ultimately ensured that none of the students were punished.

* * *

While Alya was showing Marinette the latest picture she’d taken of Rose, a text message came through from, “Chloé?”

“What does that bratty snob want?” Marinette said, backing away from the phone as if it were contagious.

“Chloé's inviting me to a party,” Alya said incredulously.

“Huh, me too!” Rose added

“Me too,” said Juleka.

“Me too,” said Mylène.

There was silence for a moment. Then they all burst out laughing.

“As if we’d want to go and get all buddy-buddy with her after everything she’s done to us!” Alya said.

“Yeah, is she serious?” Mylène asked, wiping away a tear of mirth.

“Doubt it. It’s probably just another mean trick,” Juleka said, prompting more laughter from everyone else.

“Wow, unbelievable,” Alya sighed, deleting the message and going back to the photoshoot. When Marinette’s phone buzzed a moment later, they ignored it.

* * *

Marinette and Alya met up with Nino outside Le Grand Paris to go into the party together.

“Hey Nino. Where’s Adrien?” Marinette asked, looking around as though she expected him to be hiding somewhere.

“Oh, yeah, his dad said he can’t come, he has some photoshoot on the other side of town,” Nino said, sighing.

“I don’t know why that boy agrees to plans without checking he’s free first,” Alya said, shaking her head. She looked over at the despondent Marinette. “Hey, cheer up, we’re all here. Worst case scenario, we eat a bunch of free snacks then head back over to your place.”

Reluctantly, the trio went inside.

* * *

“I did it. Adrien seems happy. Are we done now?” Chloé groaned to her butler once the party was in full swing.

“If I may be so bold, in order to reaffirm Adrien of her kindness, Mademoiselle might go and check that her guests are having a good time,” the butler suggested.

“And why would I do that, Jean-Marc?” Chloé asked.

“Because that's what Mr. Cuddly would do!” said the butler who was not named Jean-Marc, waving Chloé’s stuffed toy in her face.

Chloé’s eyes bulged and she shoved the toy out of sight, leaning in close to him.

“I swear, if anyone at this party sees that bear, I will find an actual bear  _ and feed you to it _ ,” Chloé said.

The butler decided that perhaps it was best not to put on a baby voice and wave a 14 year old girl’s stuffed toy around in front of all of her classmates. When Chloé later attempted to interrupt Marinette and Adrien dancing together, he instead escorted her from the room and helped her to calm down with breathing exercises.

Marinette and Adrien were both surprised when Alya pirouetted over to them and moved their hands to a closer embrace. When Marinette looked up at him with wide eyes checking if he was comfortable with this, Adrien, nonplussed, simply smiled and leaned into Marinette. Hardly daring to believe it was real, Marinette closed her eyes and nuzzled into Adrien’s chest.

While the slow music played, they continued circling the room, gradually slowing to just revolve on the spot, and eventually becoming almost motionless. Marinette sighed deeply. Adrien smelt her hair, pulling her into his embrace more tightly.

“How long do you think we should wait until we point out to them that the slow song ended?” Alya asked. She was leaning against Nino’s deck, watching the pair cuddling in the centre of the dance floor, while everyone around them jumped around.

“Give them at least another five minutes,” Nino said, grinning. “Probably go take a video first to make sure they realise how clueless they are.”

* * *

After Chloé and Sabrina had run between them, Chloé seeking shelter behind Kim, Marinette and Adrien watched as a darkened version of the stuffed bear Chloé’s butler had been waving around earlier ran from Sabrina’s leg and jumped onto Kim.  Marinette was about to make an excuse so she could leave to go transform, when Adrien grabbed her hand and pulled her back to dance.

“The bear’s not hurting anyone, we’ve got five minutes, or at least enough time to finish the song,” he said with a wink. Marinette giggled and relented.

When the bear later possessed Max and began throwing furniture, they both groaned and left.

* * *

Ladybug looked around frantically to get her eyes on Despair Bear again. She was frustrated when Cat Noir grabbed hold of her arm.

“What are you doing?” she said, but when she caught sight of his eyes and understood what was happening, she gasped. “Oh no!”

“Despair Bear, forget about him, we’ve tried controlling Cat Noir before and it never works out. Get Ladybug!” Hawk Moth said to his villain.

Despair Bear obeyed, jumping over to Ladybug’s leg. With Cat Noir still dazed, it was easy for Ladybug to overpower him, take his ring, and deliver the Miraculous to Hawk Moth.

* * *

“That was a great idea, inviting Marinette’s dad,” Adrien said, as he, Chloé, and Chloé’s butler watched the cooking lesson from afar.

“I know! This way, no one can be mad at me for calling the fire department. I'm really nice now, did you notice, Adrikins? Even Ladybug said so! Didn't she, Jean-Pascal?” Chloé said, finding several new ways to invade Adrien’s personal space.

“I mean, that was still a terrible act that could have endangered the lives of others, for which our entire school was unjustly punished, but sure, let’s pretend. You’ve proven you can put in the bare minimum effort to be nice to people,” Adrien said, rolling his eyes.

Chloé had tuned out much of what Adrien said, only registering him recognising her niceness. “Aww, Adrikins! So we'll always be best friends, forever? Pinky swear?”

Adrien backed away. “Whoa, slow down there. I’ve got a lot of close friends. Nino, obviously, and Marinette and Alya…” he said, listing people off on his fingers. Chloé eventually got bored and walked away to inspect and insult the cooking.

After Chloé had tried one of Marinette’s macarons, Marinette pulled faces as Chloé walked away. Adrien approached her and shook his head, despondently sighing, “She’ll never change. May I?”

“Yeah, sure…” Marinette sighed happily, taking no issue with Adrien leaning right towards her. She quickly realised that she had agreed to whatever Adrien was asking of her without any clue as to what he actually meant. “I mean… uh, what?”

“Have a macaron?” Adrien asked, as though it were obvious he meant that and not “Have your hand in marriage?” as Marinette would have preferred.

“Yes! Of Course! WHOA!” Marinette cried. She had picked up the tray, but when her nerves got the better of her, she’d fumbled the tray and sent her macarons flying. “Oh, sorry, I’m so clumsy…”

“It’s okay,” Adrien said, having luckily caught one of the sweet treats. He took a bite, and his face lit up. “Wow, this is really good! Your baking is good as your dancing! Not to mention your gaming, your fashion designing, your film producing, your work as class rep…”

“R-really?” Marinette practically squealed. Her eyes were full of hearts from Adrien’s stream of compliments.

“Absolutely. These taste exactly like the macarons my future wife makes,” Adrien said.

The wink that followed was what finally made Marinette faint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> File under: seriously, who let these people be teachers?
> 
> And Adrien, stop letting Chloé get away with this nonsense -_-
> 
> Buuut... it's also one of the best Adrienette episodes in the show, so, you know. Just need Adrien to wake up.
> 
> Next up will be Prime Queen! This one will be interesting; every episode up til now I've watched quite a few times, either because they're actually on Netflix UK or because they're among my favourite episodes. I haven't watched Prime Queen in over a year. Let's see what happens!


	30. Prime Queen

“When we return from commercial, Nadja Chamack will be joined by Ladybug and Cat Noir for an incredible, exclusive interview!” the TV announcer said.

Alya and Manon were laying down to watch, with Marinette knelt besides them.

“Mommy, there's mommy!” Manon called out, pointing at the screen.

“Why can't I get an exclusive interview like that for my Ladyblog?” Alya moaned.

Marinette had been about to make her excuse to leave, but she stopped in her tracks. “Excuse me, Alya!? You  _ did _ get an exclusive interview, just like that, for your Ladyblog! That I arranged for you, remember?”

“Well, yeah, I just…” Alya began, trailing off into mumbles.

“Oh, I’m sorry, was it not good enough that I only got  _ one _ of Paris’s superheroes to talk with you  _ in private _ for the first  _ ever _ exclusive interview with either of them? I’m sorry, I thought that would be fine, since it’s the  _ Ladyblog _ , not the Ladybug and Catblog, or the Miracublog! Perhaps you’d rather just have the most exciting interview on your blog be from a complete stranger who made up stories without any proof!”

Alya shrank back shamefully as Marinette continued to rant. Manon, mercifully, was too focused on the television to pay attention to them, but when she began to shout Marinette’s name, Marinette finally turned back to her.

“Sorry Manon, what’s up?” she asked.

“Where’s Ladybug?” Manon asked, pointing to the screen.

Marinette looked over and gasped. The interview had started. Nadja was making apologies to the viewers, and Cat Noir was making excuses on her behalf. However, his natural swagger and charisma helped Cat Noir to carry the piece. When Nadja began asking questions about the two heroes dating, Marinette was initially angry at him for teasing the audience instead of outright denying it, but he eventually shared the truth.

“Unfortunately, my Lady continues to reject my advances… which means, of course, that I’m still single,” he said, winking for the camera.

The show’s ratings went through the roof.

* * *

To the chagrin of many both in the studio and watching, Ladybug did not answer Nadja’s question about her and Cat Noir’s romantic connection. “We're here to ensure all Parisians that they're safe, and that it's only a matter of time before we defeat Hawk Moth, that's all.”

“You told me you had a inside scoop,” Nadja’s boss said into her earpiece.

“Fine. How do you explain these photographs then?” Nadja asked.

With a swipe on her tablet, a new photograph appeared on the large screen in the studio, and onto the screens of viewers across the country. The picture did indeed show the two heroes, though from about 50 feet away. They were on the ground, with Cat Noir above Ladybug, but it was impossible to see any clearer.

“What are… we looking at?” Cat Noir asked, squinting at the picture.

“Well… as it was in the middle of battle, there weren’t many clear pictures of the scene… but eyewitness reports say you were definitely kissing!” Nadja said, pointing an accusatory finger.

“I hate to say it, Nadja, but your reports are wrong. I would most definitely remember kissing Ladybug,” Cat Noir said, shaking his head. Ladybug, who had felt a little nervous, breathed a sigh of relief.

“Fine, but what about these?” Nadja said, as more photos of Ladybug and Cat Noir appeared on screen. “It's so obvious that you're both in love!”

Ladybug stood up. “These are just a bunch of photos taken out of context! We're only doing our job. We save the city every day, we're not a couple.”

“And, frankly, they’re barely even taken out of context,” Cat Noir pointed out, frowning. “Swinging around the city? Sure, we’re superheroes, that’s what we do. Grabbing each other to avoid attacks? It’s essential. And that cute little scratch? That was just a silly joke. Between  _ friends _ .”

“Thank you, Cat Noir,” Ladybug said, beaming at her partner.

“Why won't you tell the truth?” Nadja asked.

“But it is the truth, Nadja,” Ladybug retorted.

“Come on, the audience awaits your answer,” Nadja said.

Ladybug shook her head in confusion. “I just… gave you the answer. The only answer. I’m disappointed, Nadja. I thought you were a journalist, seeking truth, not tabloid scoops. This interview is over.”

* * *

The heroes vaulted through the air, landing on the roof of the TV station.

“So who are we saving again?” Cat Noir asked.

“Just us. Nadja was willing to do anything to make sure her show would be a success, she wanted a big gossipy scoop even though it’s a lie,” Ladybug sighed.

“That's the price of success my lady, the price of stardom,” Cat Noir said with a Cheshire grin.

“We're superheroes, not stars - and that’s another thing! Could you not see how uncomfortable her prying and lying were making me? Did you really have to encourage her?” Ladybug said. She frowned at Cat Noir, then turned away. Cat Noir’s ears drooped.

“You’re right, Ladybug. I’m sorry. I got caught up in it all. I promise, from now on, I will always have your back, in everything,” he said, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Ladybug turned around, and returned his smile.

* * *

“You're about to be the stars of the highest rated show in all of TV history!” Prime Queen cackled, as the heroes arrived on board the train.

“The akuma must be in that watch! I'll deal with Prime Queen,” Ladybug said.

“I'll deal with the door,” Cat Noir added.

Ladybug raced into battle, forcing Prime Queen to flee into a screen. Cat Noir made it to the door. He turned the handle, but it did not open.

“Well, I’ve done all that I can do. There’s no way I, a superhero with the power of destruction, could possibly get through a locked door,” he sighed.

“The rules for my show are simple,” Prime Queen announced. “Admit the truth live on TV that you're dating and in love and I'll stop the train!”

“A superhero never lies! We won't admit to something that's not true,” Ladybug said fiercely.

“My lady, I admire your principals,” Cat Noir said, bowing his head. “So what’s the plan?”

Ladybug shrugged. “Think I’m just gonna lie.”

Cat Noir looked up. “Say what now?”

“Okay, Prime Queen, you win,” Ladybug said, taking Cat Noir’s hand in her own. “Cat Noir and I are… in love.”

The train stopped, and Prime Queen narrated her approval, but said that to truly prove their feelings, the heroes must surrender their Miraculous.

“Wait, I know how we can prove our feelings,” Cat Noir said. He turned away from the screen, facing Ladybug, and winked. “Pucker up!”

While Cat Noir leaned towards her to kiss her, Ladybug remained impassive.

“Not a chance, kitty.”

Cat Noir opened his eyes and frowned. “What, so you’ll compromise on your principals with a bald-faced lie, but you won’t just give me a simple kiss to save a civilian? You’d kiss me to save me from a villain, but you wouldn’t do it if I actually got to remember?”

“Fair points,” Ladybug said, grabbing Cat Noir to make out with him.

The ratings shot through the roof. Prime Queen released her captives, perfectly content for Hawk Moth to relieve her of her powers with her scoop in hand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So does nobody on this show remember that the Mime happened? Alya, girl, you've been there and done that.
> 
> This episode was weirdly kind of a grind to get through, but the next few chapters are already lined up - and next will be Befana!


	31. Befana

“Uh, mom? Can I have a word, mom? Uh, just the two of us,” Tom said to his mother, who was unexpectedly present in his bakery. She had arrived, unannounced, for Marinette’s 10th birthday, a mere four years late.

“What, Tom? That I don't know my Marinetta anymore because I'm always travelling?” Gina said. Nobody mentioned how she had gotten it exactly right.

“No, mom! It's just-” Tom began, but he was cut off.

“You think she doesn't want to spend time with her Nona, is that it?” said Gina, assuming the worst of her son.

“Of course not, Gina, it’s just…” Sabine said. She stepped forward and pulled her mother-in-law back towards Tom, away from Marinette. She explained in a whisper, “Marinette’s friends have arranged a surprise party for her in the park across the road in a few hours. They’ve worked really hard on it, they’d all be so upset if Marinette missed it, and so would she.”

“Oh, well that’s no problem at all. I’ll have her back right on time! Why didn’t you just say that in the first place?” Gina said, turning to Tom and scowling.

Tom’s shoulders slumped. “Mom… why do you hate me?”

* * *

Gina looked up as the akuma entered her tin of candies.

“Befana, I am Hawk Moth. I'm restoring your matriarchal power as grandmother. You will use these candies to reward the deserving and punish the ungrateful. As for my reward, you will bring me the Miraculous of those pesky little kids, Ladybug and Cat Noir!”

“Are you serious?” Gina scoffed. She gave a derisive laugh. “I’m an adult, Hawk Moth. I can deal with my granddaughter growing up and having a life outside of me, especially as I’ve spent so much time away. I’m disappointed in myself for what I’ve missed out, and that’s nobody’s fault but my own! Get out of here, you ridiculous little bug!”

Hawk Moth scowled as his akuma flew out of Marinette’s room.

* * *

“Grandma!” Marinette cried, running up to hug Gina from behind.

“My sweetie, what did you do with that t-shirt?” Gina asked, pointing to Marinette’s new purse.

“I fixed it up, grandma. I've been sewing ever since the last time you came to visit,” Marinette said.

“You're so grown up, Marinette,” Gina said, wiping away a tear. She sighed. “I can’t believe I was so immature, I acted like such a brat! To think you would not have plans on your birthday… but you, so sweet, you tried to spare my feelings… I’m so sorry, Marinetta.”

Marinette beamed, and gave her grandmother another hug.

* * *

Adrien was stood behind a tree in the park, smiling at the charm Marinette had given him held out in his hand.

“So,” came Alya’s voice as she appeared beside him. Adrien jumped, but made no effort to hide the bracelet. “Just to be clear. For Marinette’s birthday, you could have bought her anything in the world, but instead you gave up your time - when free time is something you really don’t have - and went out of your way to make something deeply personal for her, in return for a gift she gave you that I’m pretty sure she’d entirely forgotten about.”

“Uh… yeah, that about covers it,” Adrien said. He gave a bemused smile, unsure where Alya was going with this.

“Now are you still going to try to tell me that you don’t have any feelings for Marinette,” she asked. She interrupted Adrien before he spoke to clarify, “ _ Romantic  _ feelings.”

Adrien rolled his eyes. “Alya, we’ve talked about this, Marinette is just a friend.

Alya restrained herself from putting Adrien in a headlock. She took a deep breath, then said, “In that case, why did you walk away from the party?”

“Well... Marinette had left, and I just-”

“-Wanted to spend a little bit of time alone - though not leaving the party, so you’d be around when Marinette came back, of course - standing here and just staring at that thing?” Alya finished, pointing at the bracelet. Adrien looked down at it again, and smiled.

“I was just thinking about how glad I am I could give something back to Marinette, after all she’s done for all of us. Especially when she gave me this… it was a small gesture, I know, but she was doing it to try to make me feel better, and it really did. I’ve had plenty of gifts before, Chloé always made sure of that, but this just felt like... like…”

Adrien suddenly looked up, wide-eyed, and met Alya’s knowing smirk.

“Uh oh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Adrien. Boi. That loving stare is not one for some plastic beads and string just because they're "lucky".
> 
> So yeah, spent more time playing around with how the episode ended because, frankly, apart from Gina I really like this episode. It's not all that often that we get characters who are so lame they're 100% responsible for their own akumatisation. Nobody else did anything remotely wrong; she absented herself from her family's life, she refused to listen to the explanation, she was the one who wasn't satisfied that her teenage granddaughter gave up half of her birthday to spend exclusively with her.
> 
> So she gets the standard "call out and apologise" treatment we offer here for characters who we're supposed to like.
> 
> Next time will be Riposte! See ya!


	32. Riposte

In preparation for tryouts to join Adrien’s fencing class, Marinette was trying on helmets to find the right size.

“I gotta ace these tryouts! D'Argencourt is the most prestigious fencing academy in all of Paris! I've only got this one shot to show them what I've got and get onto the team!” she said to Tikki with a fierce passion.

“Really? Even after he was humiliated in the election?” Tikki asked. Marinette shrugged. “You've been reviewing the fencing rules all weekend, it's going to be great!”

“You're right. I'm going to make quite an impression on Adrien!” Marinette said, slamming a helmet down onto the table.

Tikki frowned. She had been reluctant to say anything after Marinette proved her wrong in the past, but her partner’s words gave her cause for concern anew. “Marinette… are you only doing this to impress Adrien? I was wrong to judge you when you wanted to take part in that gaming competition, but you’ve never shown any sign of being interested in fencing before.”

Marinette looked at Tikki, but smiled, understanding her kwami’s concern. “I know Tikki. I’ll admit, I might not be doing this if not for Adrien… but before he came along practising fencing just wouldn't have occurred to me. But now… as Ladybug, I think it’s for the best to try practise different fighting techniques… and if it just so happens that I can do that  _ and _ spend more time with Adrien… well, there’s no harm in that, right?”

As Marinette spoke, she slammed her palm onto the table, and the equipment atop it began to fall to the ground.

* * *

A student approached Marinette to begin her fencing tryout. She was looking around, hoping to see Adrien but failing to realise that all of the students were already wearing their fencing masks, obscuring their faces. When he spoke, he did so with a voice that was naturally unrecognisable, because voices of those wearing masks could not possibly be distinguished.

“Seems like you're looking for someone?” 

“Yeah, I thought Adrien was here. You know, a boy this tall, blond, nice, super handsome,” Marinette gushed.

Adrien had been about to lift his visor and reveal to Marinette that he was right in front of her. He stopped himself, however, reckoning it was best for her to be able to focus on her tryout than be distracted by a friend.

“I… can’t say I’ve seen him. Maybe he’s running late?”

Marinette frowned, but when D’Argencourt called for everyone to get ready, Marinette did so as best she could, focused on everything she had studied over the weekend, with minimal pointers from Adrien.

Marinette gave the bout her all, and while she failed to understand some of the finer details, and struggled to keep track of who won each point, she demonstrated the raw ability that D’Argencourt was looking to hone.

After a few rounds, when Adrien had the upper hand and was about to touch Marinette, she managed to duck and swerve. Adrien lost his balance and fell to the ground. Marinette leaned over him. She pulled up her visor, smirked, and tapped her foil to him as she said, “Boop!”

Marinette offered him a hand to stand back up. He pulled back his visor to reveal his stunned, blushing face. Even Marinette doing a double take and dropping her foil didn’t shake Adrien out of it.

“Wow…” he sighed.

* * *

Marinette watched in awe as Adrien and the mysterious challenger did battle in the library. She was doing her best to follow each strike, but some moves were so fast that they practically blurred. Eventually, they moved apart.

“Let’s finish this off!” the red fencer declared, and both combatants charged.

When both were touched by the other’s foil, they turned to Marinette, as did a desperate D’Argencourt, for the winner.

Marinette took a moment to consider, closing her eyes to concentrate, before answering. “Well. Ignoring all of the rules violations… the touches were super close together. I’m pretty sure Adrien’s was first, but I couldn’t be certain. However, Adrien totally had priority.”

“Aha, wonderful! This victory is an honour to D'Argencourt Academy!” the instructor said.

Head hung in defeat, the red fencer left the school. Adrien approached Marinette, beaming.

“Wow, Marinette. That was a tough call. I can’t believe how quickly you picked everything up,” he said.

“Oh, well, you know, I couldn’t have done it without your help,” Marinette said, smiling despite her blush.

“You made an exceptionally difficult call with excellent judgement, and previously demonstrated exquisite preliminary skill. You shall make a fine addition to D’Argencourt Academy,” D’Argencourt said, shaking Marinette’s hand.

* * *

Adrien hid himself behind a tall chimney, ostensibly to hide from Riposte. Once out of sight, Plagg flitted up to Adrien’s shoulder.

“You're sure taking some risks today,” Plagg said.

“Don't really have a choice do I? Ladybug needs me. Plagg, claws out!”

“Adrien, you o-!” Ladybug called, wheeling around the chimney. Ladybug and Adrien were able to make eye contact just before the power of his Miraculous enveloped him.

After a pause, Cat Noir spoke. “Well… I did tell you I was busy.”

* * *

“Marinette can get flustered easily. She's kind and means well. She'd never cheat. Today was her first-ever experience with fencing,” Adrien told Kagami, explaining why he incorrectly believed Marinette had gotten the call wrong in the match.

Kagami smiled at Adrien. “You like her a lot, huh?”

“Marinette? Yeah, of course! She's a very good friend, and you'll really like her too, once you get to know her,” Adrien said, looking off to one side.

Kagami’s face fell, and she cocked one eyebrow. “Adrien, please, I met the both of you just a few hours ago, and even I can tell you’re crazy about her. And she definitely feels the same way. And I’ll be happy to act as your wingwoman.”

Kagami patted Adrien’s shoulder as her car arrived, leaving him stood there in shock.

* * *

Marinette and Tikki had listened in on Adrien and Kagami’s conversation, hidden behind a pillar.

“At least you know how much Adrien values your friendship,” Tikki said encouragingly.

“I know! Great, so he likes me, but I don't want him to just like me! I mean, I do, but, you know, I want him to  _ like _ me!” Marinette practically shouted.

Tikki created a tiny little spray bottle, and spritzed Marinette in the face. “No, bad Marinette! The best relationships begin with strong friendships!”

“Ah! Okay, Tikki, I get it!” Marinette squealed, shielding her face with her hands.

“Good. Now, go be the best friend Adrien could ask for, and he’ll naturally fall in love with you!”

“Thanks, Tikki,” Marinette giggled, rolling her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Looking into the actual rules of fencing (which the episode did discuss!) and seeing others analyse it online, Marinette absolutely made the right call. Adrien, in the thick of it, could not possibly have been sure - which is why everyone turned to Marinette in the first place. So screw you Adrien for saying Marinette got it wrong!
> 
> I can only guess that Kagami's crush on Adrien didn't start until he gave her the flower, because she shows no sign of it here. That scene at the end showed her recognising what everyone but Adrien can see; that he's crazy about her.
> 
> Next time will be Robostus. Remember that episode? Because I sure didn't. See ya!


	33. Robostus

With a virus in the process of irreparably damaging the school’s computer network, Mr Damocles and Ms Mendeleiev reluctantly allowed Max to attempt to fix her computer. Max was handed a USB stick.

“This is an anti-virus device. I - I created it with help from… my best friend,” Max said, scratching the back of his head.

“Wait, WHAT!?” Kim cried, loudly jumping to his feet. “I know Markov is important to you, but I- I thought  _ I _ was your best friend!”

Kim ran from the room in tears, and came back twenty minutes later reakumatised as Dark Cupid.

* * *

The class went nuts over the discovery that Max had created a fully automated flying robot, not to mention the development of artificial intelligence.

“I… I want one,” Damocles said, practically salivating.

“Now, Max, I just need to clarify one thing,” Mendeleiev said, adjusting her glasses. “How likely is it for this… Marvov… to rise up against humanity?”

“I’d put the odds of Markov’s AI concluding that we are his enemy at less than 1%!” Max said confidently.

“I can calculate that for you exactly! It’s 0.37%. Max programmed me very securely,” Markov said.

“Good enough for me. Speaking scientifically, we’re gonna be rolling in it!” Mendeleiev said, pulling Max in for a side hug. “You, the young prodigy, and me, the one who taught you everything you know…”

“Oh! At my school!” Damocles cheered.

With the help of the school, Max was able to sell his AI technology, making them all billionaires.

* * *

Being a machine did not protect Markov from Hawk Moth’s ability to detect and target his emotions. An akuma flew into the principal’s drawer and directly into Markov’s circuit board.

“Robostus, I am Hawk Moth. Humans don't believe you're a living being, so I'm giving you the power to bring all machines to life to help you seek revenge,” Hawk Moth explained.

“Thank you kindly, Mr Hawk Moth,” Markov said.

“But, in return, I want you to bring me Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous!”

“Could you please define "Miraculous"?”

Hawk Moth was a little taken aback by the question, but he explained nonetheless. “They're the magic jewels belonging to the superheroes.”

Markov laughed. “Oh, come now, Mr Hawk Moth. I am a being of science. You can’t expect me to believe in some fairy tale about  _ magic jewels _ . Be reasonable. I’m afraid I will have to bid you good day.”

Markov powered himself down, refusing to listen to any more of the madman’s ravings.

* * *

“Look, Max! I'm going to be a real human in fifty-three seconds!” Robostus declared.

“May I remind you that the Miraculous are for me, Robostus?” Hawk Moth said to his latest minion.

“And how can you intend to stop me from using it?”

“Simple. I'll take your power away from you!”

Robostus laughed. “You really thought you can control me?”

In Hawk Moth’s lair, sirens blared and red lights flashed. His viewing window closed and the walls opened to reveal dozens of missiles. A recording of Hawk Moth’s voice boomed.

“Intrusion! Intrusion! Elimination mode activated!”

“I'm more powerful than you, Hawk Moth!” Robostus cried.

Hawk Moth pulled out his sword and did his best to dodge, deflect, or destroy the projectiles coming for him. His lair's defences, however, were total, and he was soon struck down by a missile. Weakened, his transformation dropped.

With his final breath, Gabriel said, “Maybe an array of missiles that could only ever fire exactly where I stand wasn’t the best choice for a defence system…”

* * *

“Now’s the time to come up with a bright idea!” Cat Noir groaned. Robostus’s minions were closing in on the Miraculous.

“I’m sorry, Cat Noir!” Ladybug cried.

Suddenly, all of the machines collapsed to the ground. Above it all, Ladybug could see Max inside the little green car that had formed the cockpit as Max smashed Robostus.

“Sorry, Robostus, but I can't let you execute your program! I have to stop you!” Max said. With a final blow, he freed the akuma.

Ladybug shrugged, but pulled out her yoyo. “No more evil-doing for you, little akuma…”

* * *

Another battle won, Ladybug and Cat Noir turned from Max and Markov, running across the pitch.

“Wait!” Max cried, “Can’t I get a lift back to school!?”

* * *

Marinette had asked Master Fu to explain to her what would happen if both the ladybug and cat Miraculous were used together.

“Well, basically, it can make any one wish come true,” Fu explained.

“Wow! That's amazing! But why don't we use it, then? We can ask for so many good things, like, end all wars, or eradicate poverty, or beat Hawk Moth!” Marinette suggested.

“Universe must always stay in balance. For every action, there is a reaction. For every wish, a price to pay in return. Had your robotic friend asked to become a real boy, someone would have lost his humanity in return.”

“Okay… so… if Hawk Moth is defeated, that just means someone else is  _ not _ defeated, right? Say, us?” Marinette suggested.

“Well, no, that-” Fu began, but he found himself unable to argue against what Marinette had said. He thought for a moment, then finally said, “You’re right! Shoot, let’s get Cat Noir here quick and win already!”

Ladybug and Cat Noir combined their Miraculous, wished for Hawk Moth’s defeat, and sacrificed their own defeat to attain it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What could possibly go wrong with artificial intelligence. These people seriously undervalue what's going on though, even if Markov isn't actually sentient he's still incredibly impressive tech.
> 
> The power of the Miraculous never make sense. Hawk Moth can basically give anyone the power to do anything with just his own Miraculous, and the yin yang argument sounds like kids arguing, "It's not opposite day!" "That means it is opposite day!" Like, you use such vague terms to describe universal balance.
> 
> Next time we get to everybody's favourite, Gigantitan!


	34. Gigantitan

Marinette and Alya were explaining the intricate, convoluted plan they had crafted together to the rest of the group. After ending with ice cream and rose petals, Marinette declared, “It's gonna be perfect!”

“It's… it's… so beautiful!” Rose gushed.

“Any questions?” Alya asked.

Myléne raised her hand, and said, “Yeah, um… that sounds great and all, but… how exactly is that any better than just walking up to Adrien and talking to him? That’s what ends up happening in this plan anyway.”

“Well, yeah, but…” Marinette said, looking between her display and Alya.

“Myléne’s right. There are like a million things that could go wrong in this plan, but you end up just talking to him anyway. How does this make that any easier?” Alix asked.

“I’ll… have all of you as moral support! And keeping any obstacles out of the way,” Marinette said, beaming fondly at her friends.

“Well, if that’s all you need, we can do that,” Juleka said.

The following day, Adrien gave his bodyguard a wave as he ascended the steps to school. Chloé approached him and began to speak, but the moment they passed through the school doors, Alix grabbed Chloé and led her away, and Alya guided Adrien towards Marinette. When Marinette saw Adrien coming, she panicked and tried to leave, but Myléne kept her in place.

“You can do this, Marinette!” Myléne whispered, grasping Marinette's shoulders. 

“Uh… what’s going on?” Adrien asked with a bemused chuckle. Once he was stood in front of Marinette, the girls gave her a thumbs up and left.

“Um… I, well… i-it’s okay, forge-” Marinette began, but over Adrien’s shoulder she saw Rose glaring daggers at her, mouthing “Do it!” Marinette inhaled deeply, then, in one breath, said, “Good morning Adrien would you like to go for a coleslaw ride with me after school and get some spice dream!?”

“A… coleslaw? Spice dream?” Adrien asked. He smiled, but didn’t laugh, just waited for Marinette to explain.

“S-sorry. I mean… a rickshaw ride… to get ice cream?” she said.

“Oh! Uh, well, I don’t think I can after school today, I have a Chinese lesson. But… can I let you know when I’m free?” he asked.

Marinette had used everything she had just to say what she had, but she could see all of her friends nodding emphatically behind Adrien. She managed to mimic them, and Adrien headed off for class. The girls ran up to Marinette to hug and congratulate her.

* * *

Hawk Moth’s eye twitched as his akuma entered the bracelet of a child who was supposedly just a baby, despite having all of his teeth.

“Did… did he really just instantaneously and completely calm down at the mere sight of my son? That’s absurd! Although, perhaps it would be for the best to  _ not _ turn the man responsible for Adrien’s safety in a supervillain… I suppose I can try with this child… yes, I’ll turn him into a giant monster! In the immediate vicinity of Adrien…”

Hawk Moth groaned and wiped his hand across his face. He snapped his fingers, and the akuma retreated.

* * *

“Kitty?” Gigantitan grunted. He reached up onto the roof, trying to find Cat Noir.

Ladybug noticed that Gigantitan still had the same bracelet around his wrist from before he’d been akumatized. She felt confident that that’s where she would find his akuma, so much so that she immediately jumped for it.

As Ladybug landed on his wrist, Gigantitan pulled his hand back to look at her. Her tiny feet tickled, and he giggled.

“Gigantitan! No, get rid of her, quickly!” Hawk Moth pled. Gigantitan, however, could not understand Hawk Moth, and would not have cared if he could.

Ladybug shattered the bracelet, purified the akuma, and returned August to normal.

* * *

Gigantitan bawled over the latest in a long line of fake lollipops, until he was distracted by the sound of a bell. He looked over to see the kitty he’d been playing with stood beside what was unmistakably a genuine lollipop.

“Who wants a nice tasty lollipop?” Cat Noir said. He stood back as Gigantitan pulled up the lamppost with the Ladybug centre.

Gigantitan, however, was a baby. As such, he was stupid. He did not understand the concept of wrappers. He put the top of the lamppost into his mouth, and swallowed Ladybug whole.

* * *

The Gorilla watched as the pig-tailed girl in Adrien’s class approached his ward. He’d seen her around plenty, and knew what was up; anyone would have to be blind to not see that she liked Adrien. He also knew that Adrien needed good people in his life, and deserved to be happy. Even though he knew it would make them late, he waited patiently for the two to talk. He would always be happy to wait for Adrien.

After a minute or so, Adrien came up to the driver side window. “Hey, my friend Marinette has just invited me to hang out, and… well, since there’s nothing else on the schedule for today, do you think it’d be all right? We could… always tell my father we got held up by that akuma attack?” he asked hopefully.

The Gorilla said nothing. He gave a curt nod, rolled up his window, and pulled away from the kerb, leaving Adrien to walk arm in arm with Marinette to their waiting rickshaw.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Gorilla is Adrien's true father, Gabriel is trash.
> 
> This one's a little short... but honestly, the main thing I could do to improve it was just make sure it never happened! I mean, the episode is fine, just absurd.
> 
> The next one is gonna be fuuuun though. Stay tuned for Dark Owl!


End file.
